


The Multiverse In A Nutshell

by PenningtonInkwell



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Doctor Who (2005), My Little Pony: Equestria Girls
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:48:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 38,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24527152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PenningtonInkwell/pseuds/PenningtonInkwell
Summary: Graduation was supposed to be a happy day for the Rainbooms. Sunset and Princess Twilight had both agreed to temporarily shut the portal to Equestria so they could leave CHS safe and sound while they went on a post-graduation band tour. However, instead of SHUTTING the portal, they somehow made it explode, shattering the multiverse and scattering the Rainbooms across countless different universes. Now, Sunset Shimmer finds herself face-to-face with creatures straight out of dreams and nightmares, from the pages of legend to the screen of cinema.Her best chance to reunite with her friends and get home: a self-proclaimed "Giant Nerd" and his old jalopy of a car, both of which are native to a world of silent observers of the multiverse, including her own life with the Rainbooms. Between his guidance and her courage, the two of them are determined to reunite the Rainbooms and get them back home...Even if that means facing ink demons, xenomorphs, genocidal time-looping children, or even Egyptian god cards.
Relationships: Sunset Shimmer & Ghostrick Angel of Mischief, Sunset Shimmer & Original Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	1. So Long and Thanks For All The Friends

Sunset had never thought that the day would come: Graduation.

Today was the last day of school before the ceremony that night, and the Rainbooms were waiting their way through their last period: study hall. Rarity was happily humming to herself and doodling in her sketchbook, while Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were both huddled over a notebook, making last-minute adjustments to the new song they had written to perform at the the ceremony that night. Applejack was plucking away at her bass with ever-impressive dexterity and Twilight had joined Vinyl in optimizing their equipment for the night.

"TASTE TEST!"

Sunset was snapped out of her reverie as Pinkie Pie shoved a cupcake up to her lips. She couldn't hold back a grin as she obediently opened her mouth, allowing Pinkie to shove the pastry into her jaw. The flavor was explosive, filling Sunset's mouth with the taste of strawberries and creamy sugar frosting.

"MMMmmm..."

"Well? What do you think?"

"Ish goo!" Sunset mumbled, grinning from ear to ear around her mouthful of moist cake.

Pinkie reached into her hair, retrieving a clipboard and pen and carefully scrutinizing her reaction.

"Soo, would you rate that ABOVE or _below_ the key lime?"

Applejack sighed, finally bringing her playing to a stop. "Oh, for Pete's sake, Pinkie! You've been testing flavors all day! You're gonna send us all into a sugar coma before the ceremony even starts, and poor Sunset's got the worst of it!"

Pinkie gasped, her hand flying to her chest in shock.

"The WORST of it? Applejack, these are my most tried-and-true recipes, and I serve only the BEST to my friends! And I'm going to need the abso-tively posi-lutely best of the best for our _graduation!_ I want EVERYONE in our class to associate the best NIGHT ever with the best _TASTE_ ever, that way they'll never, ever, EVER forget it!"

Sunset chuckled, swallowing the last of the cupcake.

"Better than the key lime, but I'd say it's equal to the red velvet!"

"But isn't Bulk Biceps allergic to strawberries?" Twilight asked, looking up from her soldering work with Vinyl.

Pinkie Pie gasped again, the sheer force of the action seeming to carry her up into the air before she dashed to the tray, scanning over the assortment and cramming half a dozen into her mouth at once, somehow swallowing them all in seconds and sinking to the ground in relief.

"Okay, no more strawberries for Bulk, no citrus zest to cover Pixel Pizzaz, no peanuts for Micro Chips, and no shellfish for Soarin!"

Sunset and the rest of the girls exchanged nervous glances, all picking up Pinkie's casual implication of shellfish being present in the cupcakes. Before any of them could comment, however, Pinkie was already back on her feet, reaching for the next one.

"Okay! Who wants to try the next one?"

Sunset grinned and raised her hand, spurring Pinkie to grab another cupcake for her. She wanted to take in as much of this time as she could, savor every sense. Her time left with her friends was limited, after all. After graduation, the Rainbooms were planning on going on a cross-country tour as a final hurrah before the group split up. After that, Fluttershy was planning on becoming a full-time employee at the animal shelter, with hopes of saving up to open her own wildlife reserve someday. Rarity was going off to an internship with a big-name fashion designer, hoping to get her "big break" in Los Pegasus. Applejack was going to start tackling the full-time care of her family's farm, and Twilight had gotten a full ride scholarship to the Manehatten Institute of Technology's robotics program (a fact that had made Sunset somewhat jealous). Rainbow Dash had exceeded everyone's expectations, getting her free pick of just about any college she could ask for bringing her on board with sports scholarships of every kind.

As for Sunset, she had made up her mind: the incident with the memory stone and her opportunity to see Princess Celestia again had convinced her that it might be time that she returned to Equestria and picked up her magical studies where she had left off, now with the improved vision and scope that her friendships had provided her. Princess Twilight had offered her an advance admission into her "School of Friendship" or to put in a good word with Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. She still hadn't decided if she would take either offer.

The Rainbooms would always be the best of friends, nothing could ever break that, but they were all individuals leading individual lives, it was inevitable that the time would come for them to part ways.

Just as Pinkie was about to shove another cupcake into her mouth, Sunset felt a familiar shaking coming from her backpack.

"OOO! MAGICAL EQUESTRIA PRINCESS TEXT!" Pinkie shouted, tossing aside the cupcake and diving for Sunset's backpack in a mad dash to be the first one to the book. Unfortunately for her, Sunset's hand was faster, plucking the book from her backpack before Pinkie tackled it, sending both herself and the backpack sliding out the door and into the hallway, the door swinging firmly shut behind her.

Sunset and the rest of her friends all looked at one another, wondering whether or not they should go check on her.

"III'm ookAY!" Pinkie's unsteady voice came floating back, sounding dazed from the impact. Applejack shook her head, going back to strumming on her bass.

"Ah swear, that girl's made a' rubber... Anyway, what's the word from Equestria, Sunset?"

Sunset cracked open the book just as the last bell rang, signaling their final release from High School.

_Everything is ready on my end, what about yours?_

Sunset glanced around the room one last time, taking in the sight of all of her friends in one place. This was the last time that they would all gather in this room together, the home of so many of their memories. Clicking the top of her pen, she scrawled a short return message.

_Give us ten minutes to gather at the front of the school._

"It's time."

The rest of the girls all stopped to give one another uncertain glances. Applejack was the first to move, quickly finishing the last measures of "5 to 9" and placing her bass in its case.

"Welp, time's a'wastin', I guess... Let's go close that portal."

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunset took a deep breath, trying to steady her nerves. Something about what they were about to do felt... wrong.

"Is this... _really_ necessary?" Fluttershy asked quietly, running her fingers along the edge of the mirror that served as the portal to Equestria. "I mean, what if there's some kind of magical emergency? What if Princess Twilight needs _our_ help? What if-" her worried muttering was cut off as Pinkie Pie jumped up in front of her to interject.

"What if there's some kind of magical feedback loop caused by _time travelling heroes from the future that causes the whole portal to go KABLOOIE,_ _ **SCATTERING US ALL ACROSS THE MULTIVERSE AND DESTROYING THE RAINBOOMS FOREVER?"**_

There was a short pause as everyone turned to stare at Pinkie's typical overreaction, while Fluttershy seemed to have gone catatonic at the mere thought, whimpering and nodding with a thousand-mile-stare.

"Trust me, Princess Twilight and I have accounted for every _possible_ variable, and checked all of our math at least a dozen times." Sunset sighed, walking over and gently shaking Fluttershy's shoulder to snap her out of her day-mare. "Nothing could possibly go wrong!"

"OOOOH! You shouldn't have said that!" Pinkie cried, nervously chewing on her nails to illustrate her point.

"Besides, how long have we been planning this tour? We can't leave CHS for three months with the portal open, it'll be totally unprotected if some kind of crazy monster comes through!" Sunset sighed, rubbing her temples. "Look, no one is more reluctant to do this than me, believe me! But we'll be able to open it again any time that we want, just so long as we have the journal and the elements! The portal is my only way home if I want to return to Equestria, but I _trust_ you all enough to put my fate in your hands. We _won't_ mess this up."

The rest of the girls all looked between one another, each one taking their turn to nod in affirmation, finally ending with everyone looking at Pinkie Pie, who stopped chewing on her nails just long enough to shrug carelessly.

"Meh, I'm sure everything will be _fine!_ It'll all work out in the end!"

One by one, each of her friends joined hands, finally ending with Twilight and Applejack each offering her their hands to complete the circle. Sunset smiled and took hold, her geode beginning to glow and the power of the Elements of Harmony rising up inside her.

Together, they all began to rise up into the air, the power sparking between each of them. On the other side of the portal, Sunset knew that Princess Twilight and her friends were doing the exact same thing, preparing to use their power to shut the portal from both sides at the same time.

The magic grew stronger and stronger, and with well-rehearsed care, they all turned to face the portal, reaching out their hands one by one. Finally, as the giddy energy reached the point where Sunset was beginning to feel like she was ready to burst, beams of colored light leaped forward, joining together into a massive white beam that struck the center of the mirror. Sunset could see matching light seemingly coming from behind the glass, indicating that the group in Equestria was matching their actions step by step. Everything was going according to plan.

Without warning, however, Sunset felt something unprecedented: a tremor in the Elements. An imbalance in the harmony. Glancing over, she could see the orange light coming from Applejack glowing even brighter, a grimace of pain on her face as her geode began to crackle with more and more electrical power.

"AJ, you're coming on too strong! You need to back it down a bit!" Sunset shouted, trying to make herself heard over the sound of the elements. She and Twilight had allowed a margin for error in their calculations, but it wasn't much. If the elements on one side were thrown out of balance, it could ruin everything in only a few short seconds.

"I- I _CAN'T!_ " Applejack shouted back, letting go of Sunset's hand to grab at her geode. "Mah geode's goin' nuts! It- It's like it's overcharged! I gotta get it off!"

"Just a few more seconds! Hang in there!" Rainbow Dash interjected. "It's almost there, I can feel- AAUGH!" She cried out in pain as her geode seemed to explode with power, wrapping her body in a cocoon of blue electricity.

"RAINBOW DASH!"

This was too much. They had to stop, no matter the consequences. Closing the portal wasn't worth losing her friends. Sunset reached deep down inside herself, trying to let go of the power of the Elements of Harmony, to break the loop and let it dissipate.

But the magic didn't respond, only growing stronger.

_You took everything from me, and now I'll force you to watch as I destroy everything you LOVE!_

Sunset blinked, trying to understand. She had heard a voice, as if she were reading someone's mind with her magic, but it was a voice she had never heard before.

 _You'll never get away with this!_ This time Sunset heard her own voice, speaking words she didn't remember, followed by the sound of breaking glass and a stifled grunt of pain.

_This feeling? SAVE it... For the rest of your life._

_NOOOO!_ As Sunset heard her own scream of desperation, a vision overwhelmed her sight: a great white dragon covered in gold and rainbow gemstones, towering over CHS and letting loose a roar that shook Sunset down to her bones.

And with that, Sunset snapped back to the moment. She couldn't even see her friends behind the blinding light of their geodes. Below them, glowing white cracks had spread not only across the mirror portal, but out and into the air itself, like when Midnight Sparkle had opened the rifts to Equestria, only this time there was nothing on the other side, only blinding white light and a deafening humming. Finally, in one last, painful shudder that racked through her body, Sunset felt more power than she ever had come rushing out of her at once, spraying out of the tips of her fingers and pouring out of her eyes, making her hair stand on end and her teeth vibrate.

And then, with one final sound of the mirror shattering, Sunset slipped into the darkness of dreamless unconsciousness, her only company one final, unfamiliar voice.

_You go on ahead, Sunny. I'll take care of it..._


	2. Wake Me Up When It's All Over

Sunset awoke to a pounding pain in her head. She tried to open her eyes, only to be immediately blinded by scorching sunlight. Slowly, she tried to sit up, feeling coarse dirt and dead grass under her palms. Cracking open her eyes a second time, she found herself sitting on the edge of some kind of public park, complete with outdated-looking playground equipment. The grass was brown and dead, and the sun was beating down on her in a miserable wave of heat. Above her, the sky stretched on as far as the eye could see, with nary a cloud to provide relief from the sun. The horizon was as flat as a sheet of paper, with no visible landmarks in sight.

_Where... am I?_

There was a flash as her memories all came flooding back.

_The portal! The elements! My friends!_

_...Where are my friends?_

Despite the searing heat, Sunset's blood ran cold as she turned and re-examined her surroundings, searching for any sign of her friends. There was nothing but empty swings and a few sorry-looking trees. Sunset felt a lump welling up in her throat as panic began to overtake her.

_Did- did I lose them? Did the spell backfire? Did they fall through the portal? The geodes were reacting so violently, who KNOWS what could have happened to them?_

Still woozy from waking up, the stress was making Sunset's head start to spin as burning tears began to run down her cheeks.

_I thought we did our math right? I double and triple-checked all of the numbers, myself! I- I- This is my fault. This is all my fault! I missed something, and now all my friends are- they're-_

Sunset took a deep breath, trying to steady herself. Slowly, the world stopped spinning and her hands stopped trembling. As her strength came back to her, she rose to her feet, wiping away the tears from her face.

_If it's my fault, then I'll fix it. The first step is to figure out where I am._

Sunset took one more glance at her surroundings, this time differently from the rest. This time, she was looking for anything that might be able to help her. There was a clear view of the sky, and judging by the height of the sun in the sky, only about an hour and a half had passed since she fell unconscious.

 _But I know the area around CHS! Even if I had started moving the moment that I passed out, any route out of Canterlot would still be recognizable. This place doesn't even have the right landscape to be anywhere near Canterlot High School! I must have been transported magically, which means..._ Sunset sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose as she felt a headache coming on.

"...which means I could be literally anywhere."

She glanced around, trying to spot any way to get information. Luckily, she could see a person headed her way. He appeared to be out for a jog in the summer heat, not much older than herself and wearing a red and white baseball cap. As he drew closer, she waved her hand, trying to get his attention. Luckily, he spotted her and quickly came to a stop, reaching up and pulling a pair of earbuds out of his ears.

"Hey, what's up?" He reached up, taking off a pair of blue sunglasses, and the look on his face quickly shifted from a casual greeting to worried concern. Sunset was suddenly very aware of the fact that is was still very obvious she had been crying moments ago. His expression softened and he leaned in closer, giving her a quick examination to check for injury. "Are you okay?"

Sunset was faced with a choice. It was the kind of choice she had been making ever since she had "reformed" and decided to give friendship a try. For all her good intentions, she DID still know how to manipulate people with ease. Chances were that if she played the fearful, helpless victim, she might get more help out of this stranger...

She quickly blinked away the thought the same way she had a thousand more just like it. She wasn't THAT Sunset Shimmer, any more.

"Yeah! Just a little lost..." Sunset forced herself to smile as she outstretched a friendly hand. "Do you think you could tell me where I am?"

The stranger blinked and furrowed his brow, as if the very idea of someone being lost seemed to perplex him.

"Well, this is the city park..." He pointed to a building to their left. "That's the youth center." He changed direction, pointing over her shoulder. "That's Main Street, if that's what you're looking for, and the elementary school is just past it."

Sunset blinked, wondering if he had misunderstood her question.

"And... what city is this?"

The stranger's eyes widened in surprise, and Sunset knew that she was definitely making herself look and _feel_ more and more lost by the second.

"Seminole? Seminole, _Texas?_ The United States? Earth? The Solar System? The Milky Way?" He gave her a questioning look as Sunset felt the color drain from her face.

"I'm in TEXAS?"

"Yeah? Are you SURE you're okay? That's kind of a difficult fact to be surprised by around here..."

Sunset took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down.

"I... I'm not quite so sure how okay I am, any more."

The stranger looked concerned but gave her a smile, stretching out his hand.

"Well, maybe I can help. My name's Elijah, though my friends just call me 'Penn.'"

Sunset took a deep breath and took the hand, feeling him give it a firm squeeze and a rough shake.

"I-I'm Sunset. Sunset Shimmer."

For a moment, Sunset thought she caught his expression change, though she could have imagined it as he gave her a wide smile. _I must be imagining things... my nerves are getting the best of me._

"You look pretty hot in that leather vest, and there's a gas station with a self-serve milkshake machine a few blocks from here. You thirsty? My treat."

Sunset pondered for a moment. She didn't want to take advantage of him, but she had to admit that he was right, she was quickly burning up in the heat, and a milkshake sounded like the perfect thing to accompany what was obviously going to be a long discussion about how she wound up so far from home.

"Yeah... Milkshakes sound good."

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunset took a long sip from her mint-chocolate-chip milkshake as she and Penn stepped back out of the gas station, silently wishing that Canterlot had a machine like the ones here. Sure the mall had plenty of places for a nice smoothie, but she liked the idea of the convenience of having one at the corner store five minutes from her home.

"Thanks for this. It really hits the spot!"

Penn chuckled, raising his own smoothie in a toast as he took a long sip of strawberry-kiwi.

"I just wish I'd found you earlier this morning! If you're new in town, that means you haven't tried any of Mariah's breakfast burritos!" He pointed to a small restaurant down the street. "Best I've ever had!"

Sunset blinked, a realization striking her for the first time.

"You know, I have another friend from Texas, but you don't have the same accent... In fact, you hardly have an accent at all. If you don't mind me asking..."

Penn chucked to himself, motioning for Sunset to follow him as he walked to a nearby crosswalk and pressed the button for them to cross. Sunset wasn't entirely certain where they were going, but decided to follow her self-appointed tour guide without pestering him with too many questions at once.

"Your friend was probably raised here. I only moved down a few years ago from the other side of the country. If I had to guess why I have no accent at all..." He paused in thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Too much British sci-fi when I was a kid?"

Sunset couldn't help but chuckle at the joke as they finally made their way to a bench just outside the town hall, taking a seat. Sunset sat beside him, taking another sweet sip of her milkshake.

"And what exactly brings YOU to Texas? I mean, one does not _simply_ wind up in the middle of West Texas without realizing it!" He chuckled and took his turn to take a long sip as Sunset answered.

"Well, you might not believe me..." Sunset sheepishly stirred her milkshake, trying to loosen the contents to make them easier to drink.

"With the day I've had? Try me."

Sunset raised an eyebrow. _Well, he asked for it..._

"...magic?"

Penn pondered the question for a moment, then nodded firmly.

"Makes sense to me."

Sunset's eyes widened. That had to be the absolute most _nonchalant_ reaction she had ever seen to someone being told magic existed.

"You're... being sarcastic, aren't you?"

"Nope. Look at it this way:" Penn leaned forward, giving her a wry smile. "You're completely unharmed, dressed well, you don't seem to have any kind of head injury and don't exactly strike me as mentally ill. That rules out escaped mental patient, kidnapping, or human trafficking. You were alone, so that rules out being part of a traveling group, and you don't exactly seem to have any idea where you are or have a means of transportation, so that rules out traveling alone." He shrugged, leaning back in his seat. "Once you've ruled out the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. What reason do I have NOT to believe you?" He shrugged again. "Besides, I never rule out magic because you never know when you'll run into technology so advanced, the line is indistinguishable."

Sunset took a deep breath, feeling some measure of relief that he had ruled out the possibility of her insanity so quickly.

"So, what kind of 'magic' sent you here? Do you have any idea how to get back?"

Sunset took a deep breath, then shook her head.

"It all started when my friends and I were trying to-" Sunset was cut off as Penn raised his hand for her to stop, placing his sunglasses back over his eyes and peering up into the sky as best he could.

"Hold on... do you see that?"

Sunset tried to look in the same direction raising her hand over her eyes to try and avoid looking directly into the sun. She could see SOMETHING flying through the air, though she wasn't exactly certain what it was. It looked almost conical, round and wide at the bottom but narrower towards the top. The top of it was rounded and dome-shaped, and as it drew closer, she could see that it was covered in some kind of bronze-colored bubbles on the lower half. Just as she was about to ask whether or not that thing was normal around here, a blast of blue light flew out of the thing and blasted the gas station, causing a near-deafening explosion. Sunset threw her hands up in front of her face, trying to protect herself from shrapnel. To her surprise, she heard a muffled voice and felt a hand grab her wrist. Before she was even fully aware of what was happening, she was up on her feet and sprinting to keep up as Penn pulled her along, across the road and into a nearby store, shoving a path for them past the rest of the people running out to see what had happened. He didn't stop inside the store, pulling her along all the way to the back of the building's furthest aisle before finally coming to a stop. He turned around, quickly beginning to say... something... to her. Her hearing still hadn't recovered from the explosion, and her ears were filled with painful ringing.

"H-hold on! I can't hear a word you're saying!" Sunset shouted.

Penn gave her a quizzical look before shouting something back. Judging from reading his lips, he had said "WHAT?" It took a moment for him to put two and two together, motioning to his ears and making a slicing motion across his neck. Sunset nodded.

Penn sighed and shook his head, turning to look at the walls of the aisle. It looked as if he had pulled them into a hardware store, and he was now browsing their selection of hammers, picking them up one at a time and testing their weight before setting them back on the shelves, dissatisfied with his selection. After nearly a minute and about a dozen hammers, the ringing in Sunset's ears came to a stop, and get gave her fingers a few experimental snaps beside her head. The noise was crisp and clear once more.

"C-can you hear me?" she stuttered, staggering back up to her feet.

"Well, I can NOW..." Penn muttered, now sounding significantly less friendly and chipper than he had moments before.

"What WAS that thing? Did- did it just... are the people in that gas station-"

"Dead? Yes."

Sunset felt her heart clench in terror. The people there had been friendly and kind, innocent! How could that THING have just done something so awful without a second thought or a moment's hesitation.

"Sunset, did that THING follow you here?"

"WHAT? No! I've never seen it before in my life, I swear!" Sunset held up her hands defensively, but Penn didn't press the matter any further, taking a deep breath. For the first time, Sunset noticed his legs shaking violently at the knees as he picked up a claw hammer with an oversized head, giving a resigned sigh and tightening his grip.

_He's scared, too..._

"Penn, what WAS that? Why is it attacking?" For a brief moment, Sunset wondered if it might be after her. She and her friends had obviously broken SOMETHING with their efforts, but she wasn't sure what. Could this thing have come to punish her? Were there more after her friends?

"Imagine taking a person raised in the middle of a warzone and warping their body beyond recognition through forced mutation..." he whispered, leaning carefully out to peek out from the edge of the aisle towards the front of the store. "Imagine genetically engineering a creature with no emotions left but seething _hatred_ after years of torment, literally blocking out any other capacity for feeling from its brain. An emotional lobotomy geared only towards being the last species standing in the universe. Xenophobia incarnate."

Sunset felt chills running down her spine.

"Now imagine putting that thing into a near-impervious tank and giving it enough firepower to wipe out a city in a single day."

Sunset felt only terror at the thought. Who could have possibly been so cruel as to make something like this monster?

"But it shouldn't be here! It CAN'T be here!" Penn's grip on the hammer tightened as he motioned for Sunset to follow him into the next aisle.

"Why not?" Sunset was REALLY hoping for some kind of reason that would give them a solution on how to send this that back where it came from.

"Because that is a _dalek._ And daleks are _fictional_ monsters from a _fictional_ television show!" He hissed. Sunset could see that he was very nearly on the verge of panic, himself. His words were every bit as much to inform her as they were to reassure himself.

"Well, apparently not any more!" Sunset replied, pointing to the front door, where the "dalek" was pushing its way through the entrance. Penn grabbed her by the shoulder, forcing her back into the aisle and out of sight. He peered around the corner, trying to get a better look at the dalek's location.

"Well, does it have any weaknesses? How can we beat it?" Sunset asked.

Penn tightened his grip on the hammer. "Well, do you happen to have any high-caliber rifles on you? Laser weapons?"

"Um... Sorry, left my armor-piercing rounds at home?"

"Then the weakest point is the eyestalk. That's the only way it can see into the outside world. If we can break that, it'll be firing blind and we can make a run for it." He stared down at the hammer and examined the handle. "I need rubber gloves, in case they've electrified the surface to discourage people from whacking-" He was cut off as the dalek came rolling around the corner, staring directly at the two of them. Sunset stared directly into the eyestalk, a glowing blue eye, unblinking and robotic.

"EX-TER-MIN-ATE!"

"RUN!"


	3. Awful Lot of Running

"RUN!"

Sunset and Penn both ducked out of the way, sprinting down the aisle towards the other side of the store. Sunset felt a flash of heat on her face as a laser blast flew just past her shoulder.

"EX-TER-MIN-ATE!"

Sunset dodged left, Penn dodged right, and the two became separated.

_Okay, think, Sunset! Think! You're standing in the middle of a hardware store! There's weapons all around you to improvise with!_ She tried to quiet her pounding heart, searching for some kind of weapon. Somehow, however, she had found her way into an aisle of buckets, completely devoid of weapons. Carefully, she could hear the dalek rolling along the floor, moving in the direction Penn had run. Taking the moment, she examined one of the buckets next to her.

_High gloss latex paint? Well, maybe if I could bring a can down on top of that eyestalk..._ She reached over, giving the bucket an experimental lift. It was heavy, too heavy for her to swing over her head. It did start to form a plan in her mind, however. Picking up one of the gallon buckets, she carried it silently to the mixer and popped open the top, revealing the white sludge inside.

_Maybe we don't have to break off the eyestalk, just blind it temporarily!_

"You're a long way from Skaro, dalek!" Penn's voice echoed across the empty store. "And your kind never travel alone! There's always a full-scale invasion or a stealthy scout! Why the break in protocol?"

_I thought he said this thing was nothing but distilled hatred? Why is he trying to TALK to it?_

"I WAS SENT TO IN-VEST-I-GATE A RIFT IN SPACE-TIME. THAT RIFT LED HERE." The dalek's electronic voice sent shivers running up and down Sunset's spine. "I WILL GATHER DATA FROM THIS SET-TLE-MENT AND REPORT!"

Sunset felt a lump form in her throat as she snuck from one aisle to the next, closer and closer with her bucket in hand. So this WAS her fault. This thing had come to this town through the same rifts she and her friends had doubtless caused in their own clumsy blundering.

"And what about after that, huh? What is your report going to SAY?"

"PRE-LIM-IN-ARY SCANS SHOW THIS WORLD IS WEAK, AND BOUN-TI-FUL IN RES-OUR-CES! RES-OUR-CES THAT WILL BELONG TO THE DA-LEKS!"

"So, the whole world IS at stake! Thank you very much, good to know!"

Sunset froze. If what she heard was true, then... they couldn't just run. This 'dalek' had to be stopped here and now, or else more would come and destroy the whole world! She couldn't let that happen.

The world was at risk, and Sunset Shimmer was trapped in a hardware store with a bucket of high-gloss latex paint.

"Tell me, dalek, do you know WHERE you are?"

The dalek actually seemed to pause for a moment, as if pondering the question.

"You're on EARTH, dalek! I'm sure you scanned the lifeforms here and figured out they were human! And don't you remember what happens EVERY TIME you come here?"

Still the dalek hesitated, then scooted... backwards? Sunset couldn't believe her eyes.

"That's right! You're beaten! The daleks are wiped out, blown to smithereens! Just like in the GREAT TIME WAR!"

"WHAT DO YOU KNOW OF THE TIME WAR? EXPLAIN! **EXPLAIN!** "

_I get it! Penn said this thing was from a TV show, right? He must know all about it! Things that nobody COULD know!_ Sunset drew in a sharp intake of breath as she began to feel hope. Unfortunately, this noise proved to be enough to alert the dalek to her presence. The top dome piece swiveled one hundred and eighty degrees, turning to stare at her. As the body portion with the gun turned to face her, Sunset acted, throwing the paint at the dalek's head and thoroughly coating the eyestalk.

There was only a moment of hesitation before the eye began to sizzle and boil, burning away until it was crystal clear.

"MY VISION IS **NOT** IMPAIRED! EXTERMINATE! EX-TER-MIN-ATE!"

Sunset quickly scrambled for footing as she ran back into the next aisle, hearing an explosion behind her as another shot barely missed. Without missing a beat, she ducked down and out of sight,

_You know, for beings that could supposedly destroy entire planets, they're REALLY bad at hitting moving targets..._

"The TIME WAR?" Penn shouted, drawing the Dalek's attention back in the direction of his voice as Sunset tried to catch her breath and solidify her knees again.

"I remember the Last Great Time War! I was THERE!" Penn shouted, the conviction in his voice wavering. Sunset knew that whatever nerve he had that was keeping him talking was going to run out soon. "I watched the Cult of Skaro throw themselves into the void! I saw Davros fall into the gaping maw of the Nightmare Child! The Ship of the Dalek Emperor fall out of time! I knew the day Gallifrey fell and the dalek fleet wiped itself out firing into the empty space that was left!"

Sunset wasn't certain if he was just spouting gibberish or saying something comprehensive, but it certainly seemed to be aggravating the dalek.

"YOU ARE NOT HU-MAN! NO HU-MAN COULD KNOW SUCH THINGS!" There were sounds of laser fire, and Sunset felt her heart drop out of fear that Penn had been hit.

"Oh, couldn't I? Perhaps I'm NOT human! Or perhaps I was told all these things by someone who isn't? You never know what kind of gossip you can hear from a good DOCTOR, these days!"

Mustering up her courage, Sunset took her turn to shout out.

'"Penn! It's covered in LATEX paint! No rubber gloves!"

As Sunset got out the crucial information, however, she watched the dalek silently turn the corner, coming face-to-face with her. It had hidden the sound of its movement by hovering several inches off of the ground and now had the barrel of its gun pointed directly at her heart. She froze. Unable to move, unable to breathe or even scream, Sunset Shimmer stared into the face of death.

But death didn't come. Two seconds passed, then three. The dalek didn't fire. Sunset's eyes widened and the first wisps of a question began to form on her lips before Penn came barreling at the dalek from the side, bringing a massive sledgehammer down onto the eyestalk and snapping it in two. Sparks and arcs of electricity began to fly from the tattered remains of the eyestalk as Penn quickly dropped the sledgehammer before it could become a lightning rod and ran towards Sunset. With one quick motion, he yanked her onto her feet and into the next aisle.

"Are you okay?" He asked her, grabbing her shoulders and looking directly into her eyes. "Feeling good? Nothing broken or lasered?"

"N-no! I'm fine! I- I think it wasn't going to shoot me."

"Sunset, shooting is all daleks DO, and there are going to be a whole lot MORE of them coming if we let this one get away!" Penn reached over and grabbed a claw hammer off of the wall, turning it so the pointed end was facing outwards. "The paint was GENIUS, and you got some on the gun, I'm going for that, next. Stay out of sight, okay?"

Sunset could only nod as Penn vanished again, moving in the opposite direction to try and find a better hiding spot. Once she had reached the back aisle of the store, she started to peek her head around the corner, catching a glimpse of Penn facing off with the mechanized monster.

_It could have killed me then and there, why didn't it?_ The question still nagged at her, but she filed it away for later. For now, Penn was right. This dalek hadn't hesitated to kill the people in that gas station, or any other victims it might have had before now, and if they didn't stop it, the rest of its kind wouldn't hesitate to kill the whole world. Beating this thing was now or never. She looked around for a weapon of her own. Nothing seemed like it would be useful, not against this thing. Only one object caught her attention: a black handle with no attached tool at the end. She picked it up from where it sat on the shelf, curious. There was no price tag or any kind of label on it, but it felt as though it had been made to fit perfectly in her hand. It even had a clip on the side that fit perfectly onto her belt, and she quickly put it away there. While she wasn't certain why it grabbed her attention, she had learned not to avoid intuition when it came to magic.

Penn's attempts to knock off the gun had proven fruitless, it was too durable for the hammer. The dalek was indeed firing blindly and without warning, but its terrible aim proved easy enough to avoid at close range.

"MY VISION IS IMPAIRED, I CANNOT SEE! MY VISION IS IMPAIRED!"

"Well, how about THIS?" Penn shouted as he ducked down and grabbed his sledgehammer, bringing it down on the paint-covered dome head of the dalek. Even the mighty sledgehammer proved fruitless at penetrating the metal shell, however. To Sunset's dismay, she watched at the dangling remains of the eyestalk began to rise, being reeled in by the wires that it swung by. Seconds later, the piece was in its natural place and Sunset could see the glow of welded metal along the breaking point. Instantly, it swiveled around to look at Penn, who had the expression of a child with his hand in the cookie jar.

"MY VISION IS **NOT** IMPAIRED."

"PENN!"

There was a flash of light, and Sunset saw a beam strike him directly in the chest, throwing him across the room. At the same instant, the top half of the dalek exploded in a spray of metal pieces and unknown fluids, seemingly of its own accord. Sunset sprinted out of her hiding spot and ran to where her new friend lay of the floor, inspecting him up and down for injuries. In a surprise that left her absolutely gobsmacked, Penn let out a weak cough, his eyes snapping wide open as he gasped for air. He sat up, first looking at the exploded dalek, then back at Sunset, and repeating the motion multiple times.

"My... my whole life just flashed before my eyes! It was _LAME!_ "

"How did you... survive?" Sunset looked down at the point of impact, noticing a shiny, silvery material through the hole in his shirt. Reaching down, she pulled up the bottom of his shirt to reveal a large mirror hidden underneath, with scorch marks around the place where the beam had struck it. She raised an eyebrow, turning to stare at him.

"H-hey, mirrors worked in this old TV special called 'The Five Doctors.' I figured it would make good insurance..." Penn muttered as he reached up and pulled the mirror out of his shirt. "A little bit of 'Doctor Who' combined with a little bit of 'Back To the Future 3...' It worked, didn't it? What are you looking at me like that for?"

Sunset rolled her eyes before finally letting out a long sigh of relief.

"You're right, the important thing is that we beat it... So, what should we do, now?"

Penn thought for a moment, staring at the remains of the dalek with a mix of fear and awe.

"For now, I need to use a bathroom."

Well, it was hardly a cool one-liner, but Sunset was willing to give him a little credit considering he had just staked his life on the hope that a hardware store mirror would reflect a killer laser blast.

"And maaaybe focus on figuring out how it got here?" Sunset finished the thought for him.

"Y-yeah... what you said..." He shook his head, slowly staggering to his feet. "I have a hunch it has something to do with that 'magic' you were talking about."

Sunset hated to admit it, but SHE had a hunch that he was right.


	4. Welcome to My Apocalypse

When Penn had emerged from the store's bathroom, Sunset could tell that his near-death experience had a significant effect on him, physically. His face was still pale and she was pretty sure his reddened eyes were an indicator that he had been vomiting, but other than that he appeared to be fine. He took one deep breath, held his hand level, and pushed it own in a calming motion.

"S-sorry about that. I'm... I'm good now."

Sunset flashed him her best reassuring smile. She knew that she and her friends were more of the exception than the rule when it came to how well they handled life-threatening situations. It was obvious that this was the first time Penn had ever been threatened like that.

"No need to apologize. After all, you saved my life from that... 'dalek' thingy."

"Well, don't sell yourself short! That paint idea was genius!" He gave her a weak grin and gave her a firm pat on the shoulder.

Sunset rolled her eyes, trying to look modest.

"Well, I'm not the one who ran in like a berserker with a sledgehammer!" She grinned and gave him an encouraging punch on the shoulder. "That thing had me dead to rights before you nailed the eyestalk!"

A small amount of color returned to Penn's face as he sheepishly looked back at the exploded remains. While he had been gone, Sunset had taken the time to inspect it. The whole thing smelled foul and she had nearly joined him in vomiting when she had caught sight of a half-exploded creature inside with stubby tentacles and a single, glassy eye.

She gave him another toothy grin and poked a finger through the hole in his shirt to jab at his chest. If this really WAS his first time dealing with danger like this, she wanted to encourage him. Despite the fact he seemed older than her, she couldn't help feeling a kind of seniority over him from her experience dealing with other dangers before. Rainbow Dash would probably say something about them being "awesome superheroes" and "inspiring the public." Sunset resisted the urge to roll her eyes at even the imaginary remarks.

"And speaking of genius, the mirror was brilliant!"

Penn's face flushed harder, and Sunset decided she was starting to push it too far with the compliments.

"It was just a backup plan, just in case..."

"What was all that 'time war' stuff about, anyway? It sounded like you were talking about something... alien?"

Penn chuckled slightly, waving away her concerns.

"Just a bunch of buzzwords and triggers from the same TV show as the dalek. I'm a big fan, so I know enough to SOUND like I know what I'm talking about." He pounded one fist gently against his chest. "Totally human. One heart."

Sunset turned away from the monster and back towards the door. She took a deep breath.

"Well, what do we do, now? I'm still lost, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried about more of these coming after my friends..." Sunset took a deep breath, trying not to envision what might happen to someone like Fluttershy if she were being chased down by one of these things.

Penn nodded in silent agreement, walking towards the front door.

"I-I guess that we should get working on finding them, huh?" The longer he talked, the more firm his voice became, his confidence returning to him. As he stepped outside however, Sunset watched his head immediately snap upwards and his gaze fixate completely on the sky. Sunset couldn't help feeling some trepidation as she followed after him, looking up to try and see what had captured his attention so thoroughly. The scene that greeted her, however, was unlike anything that she had ever seen in even her greatest dreams or worst nightmares.

The sky was tearing itself apart, for lack of better words. The sky rippled like a sail in the wind, shaking and billowing as streaks of lighting and fire tore their way across from horizon to horizon. Galaxies and nebulae hung just above their heads, undulating in a kaleidoscope of colors. Figures were silhouetted from behind, some brandishing grand weapons of starlight and void, others with strange and warped bodies of countless arms and lashing out with blasts of unknowable power. Sunset didn't even know what to think as she could only look on in awe and horror as celestial armies and terrible titans clashed above her head, sending fresh ripples through the canvas sky above them.

"Amaterasu, Vishnu, Odin... Emperor Jimmu's terracotta army..." Penn whispered breathlessly in disbelief. "Zeus, Ra, Quetzalcoatl, Mars, Osiris..."

Sunset recognized the majority of the names, but was unable to process what he was implying.

"Sunset... what kind of magic did you guys CAST?"

Sunset blinked, unable to tear her eyes away from the war in the heavens.

"I- I don't know, any more..."

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When they had finally regained their senses enough to tear their eyes away, Penn had suggested regrouping at his house to try and decide on a course of action. Sunset agreed, and the two of them had set out on a long trek across town. It felt like they were walking for nearly an hour before they turned up at a tiny house on the border of a small playground. The roof sagged in the middle and the weatherproofing was chipped and cracked, covered in faded yellow paint. The door itself had seen better days, stripped down to exposed wood in vertical stripes. As he unlocked the door, Sunset noticed him ram his shoulder against it to crack it open.

"Be it ever so humble..." Penn muttered, opening the door wider and motioning for her to enter, "there's no place like home."

Sunset tried not to cringe as she stepped inside. There was exposed and hole-ridden drywall everywhere, and a quick glance revealed that there wasn't a single properly covered outlet or light switch in the house. She was screaming internally as Penn took a tender grip of an exposed light switch and flicked the lever.

"Sorry, the place was midway through a renovation when they let me move in. I'm a family friend, and I was getting kicked out of my apartment." He shrugged sheepishly. "I HAVE been doing a little work! Check it out! Totally rebuilt these windows!"

Indeed, it looked as if the windows and the entire frames around them had been recently redone, with smooth wood and a clean white finish. She had to admit, for amateur work, the carpentry looked decent.

"Anyway, make yourself at home. Take a seat! Do you want a gatorade?"

Sunset blinked in confusion, then glanced back out the window, making sure that the world was still ending outside. Yup. With a sigh, she flopped onto his couch, sinking deep into the fluffy surface.

" _How_ are you so calm?"

"Sunset, I can't do anything about THAT." He pointed upwards to illustrate his point. "I don't even know what it means. For now, all that can be done is to enjoy the light show. Besides..." He chuckled darkly to himself as he walked back and offered her a bottle of red liquid. "I'm a millennial. We've all been waiting for the end of the world ever since we were old enough to understand global warming was real and the economy was in the toilet before we even had a chance to participate. That's why we all have clinical depression and joke about wanting to die."

There was a beat of silence as Sunset stared at him in horror before Penn broke out into a wide grin.

"I'm _kidding!_ Come on, if there's any time for dark humor, it's at the end of the world!"

"That _wasn't_ funny."

Penn shrugged, shaking the bottle as an indication she should take it. She begrudgingly took it and twisted open the lid with a series of cracks. The liquid inside was tangy and slightly salty, but refreshing. She hadn't realized just how thirsty she was until that moment, but it hit the spot. Penn took a long swig of his own drink before letting out a long sigh of satisfaction.

"So. From what you told me, you and your six friends were ALL trying to close a magical portal to Equestria..."

Sunset nodded.

"Something went wrong that you couldn't identify..."

Sunset nodded again.

"And basically, it sounds like you all got caught into some kind of feedback loop that overloaded the Elements of Harmony and... blew up the portal?"

Sunset sunk a bit further back into the couch, feeling more and more upset.

"And then you woke up where I found you..." He tapped his chin thoughtfully for a few moments.

"I don't know what could have gone wrong! I wasn't the only one who did the math on this!" Sunset threw her hands into the air in frustration. "Everything was checked and double-checked from both sides! Harmonic resonance of two magic sources, spatial wrinkling when the portals closed, we didn't forget a single factor on either end!"

Penn took a seat on a swivel chair, taking a quiet sip of his drink.

"Well, I couldn't call myself an expert on magic portals, so forgive me if this is a stupid question..."

"I've always believed there's no such thing." Sunset's response was more reflex than thoughtful. That had been one of the few of Princess Celestia's teachings that had truly drilled its way through her thick skull.

"Well, then... are you sure the portal only had _two_ sides?"

Sunset blinked, unsure if she was understanding what he was suggesting. Penn took a deep breath and sighed.

"Look. If you've got a 'portal,' that's basically a wormhole, right? Two different points in space connected by a passageway?" Sunset nodded, encouraging him to continue. In a matter of seconds, he finished off his drink and placed the bottle between his palms, pressing on both ends at once. "Well, you applied pressure at both ends.... but what about the passage section in the middle?" Slowly, he began pushing his hands towards one another, crunching the bottle in on itself. Sunset's eyes widened as she began to see the idea he was trying to get across. As his hands applied greater and greater pressure, the bottle began to expand in places it had formerly bent inward. With a grunt of exertion, Penn gave up on crushing the bottle, taking a deep breath from the exertion.

"You get the idea without me pushing until this explodes, right? I mean, that doesn't really explain the magical feedback, but it might explain how _you_ got here, along with the dalek. Whatever happened looks like it might have broken the barriers between universes." He looked up through the window, taking another astonished look at the sky. "Which might explain why every pantheon of gods to ever exist seem to now be battling for supremacy... They finally caught sight of one another."

Sunset swallowed loudly, peeking out the window again. Things had hardly changed above them, it was still a vicious battleground.

"So... this IS all my fault..."

Penn thought for a moment, then waved his hand dismissively.

"Pssh! Screw _that_! Even if you DID knock down the walls, it's THEIR choice to fight each other! It's the dalek's choice to blow up the gas station. You just... _enlightened_ the multiverse. They're the ones who choose what to do with it."

Sunset smiled a little bit, feeling slightly better. He was right, but it didn't do much to abate the blame she still felt mounting on her shoulders.

"So, then, it stands to logic that your friends probably got sent to other worlds, too."

Sunset nodded along for a second, only for a second meaning in his words to sink in after a few seconds. "Wait, 'sent to other worlds, TOO?'" Sunset leaned forward, narrowing her eyes at her host. "You're saying that as if I'M on another world..."

Penn's jaw quickly clamped shut, the tip of his tongue caught between his front teeth.

" _Penn,_ what are you not telling me?"

Penn's jaw unclamped slightly, only enough to let his tongue slip back inside his mouth.

"Penn, are you telling me that I'm NOT on my _world_?"

Penn pushed his chair away from Sunset, rolling his way out of sight and into the kitchen. The last thing she saw was him making a "so-so" motion with one of his hands as he shrugged uncomfortably and made a high-pitched "eeeeeeeh?" noise.

"I-I mean, in my defense, you ARE the only person we saw with orange skin and multi-colored hair all the way from the park to here..."

Sunset rose out of her chair, walking into the kitchen. Penn still hadn't changed his pose once he was out of sight, posing with his shoulders shrugged so hard they were practically up to his ears. In a matter of seconds, Sunset decided that she had an easier way of getting answers out of him: magic. A quick peek at his memories would give her all the information she needed, and he wouldn't even know it. As she reached to take a hold of his arm, however, he moved it out of the way. Narrowing her eyes, Sunset tried to grab his hand, only for him to defensively move it out of the way again.

_He... KNOWS about my magic?_

After a moment's pause, Sunset lunged forward while Penn lunged to the side, rolling out of the chair and onto the floor. As Sunset crashed into the chair and was sent rolling across the tiny kitchen, Penn scrambled to his feet, holding up his hands defensively.

"O-okay, Sunset, we're all VERY stressed here, time-space is broken, and we can't be certain that certain pieces of information exchanging between parties won't damage it further..."

Sunset turned around, taking a seat in the chair instead of continuing to chase him. She knew Penn was nervous. She knew how to get nervous people to feel intimidated. She knew how to get nervous people to give her what she wanted. She leaned back in the chair for a moment, crossing one leg over the other as her face settled into a disapproving glare. Penn anxiously glanced from side to side, seemingly trying to look anywhere but at her. She folded her arms over her chest and leaned forward, narrowing her eyes from 'disapproving' to 'interrogating.'

"I will ask you this one time and one time only, Penn. I didn't tell you what my magic does, but you knew why I was trying to touch you. You KNEW. Where. Am. I?"

Penn visibly squirmed under her gaze, trying to hold up under her scrutiny and obviously failing. Sunset knew she had nothing on Fluttershy's "stare," but she could summon up a nasty glare of her own when she wanted to, a useful talent left over from her days as a bully.

"Sunset, I REALLY shouldn't-"

Sunset didn't even need to speak, cutting him off by only raising an eyebrow.

"But I- What if- UGH! FINE! I'll tell you everything, just stop _looking_ at me like that!"

Sunset leaned back, a satisfied smirk on her face. She still had it.

"Okay, just- It's a good thing you're already sitting down- I need you to just listen to me and believe what I tell you, alright?"

Sunset nodded.

"The reason I was so willing to believe you when you said magic brought you here was because... I'm a fan. I KNEW who you were, I knew you had magic."

Sunset's eyes narrowed, but she was trying to keep an open mind.

"Because, like the dalek... I've had a little... peek... into your universe."

"What, like another TV show?"

"Well, a spin-off of a TV show..." Penn corrected her, awkwardly rubbing at the back of his head. "The main show is about Princess Twilight and her friends... The time you went and stole her crown and tried to take over the school was a movie special."

Sunset blinked, but her lack of reaction encouraged Penn to keep talking.

"Then there was a movie about you guys fighting the Dazzlings... a movie about the Friendship Games..."

Sunset's eyes widened as she realized that he was beginning to outline all of the key events of her life in the past few years.

"A movie about Camp Everfree, a three-part TV special, a series of online animated shorts and music videos- By the way, I LOVE the Rainbooms's music! You guys are really great!"

_Someone's been UPLOADING our music?_

"And then another movie about Wallflower and the memory stone and a movie about that time you guys were all working in a fair and got zapped into a magic phone and-" Penn seemed to finally notice the fact that Sunset's eyes had grown wide as dinner plates and her breathing had grown shorter and much faster.

"I-I think you get the idea..." He muttered, glancing around at their surroundings. "And, on the plus side, it looks as if you knowing all of this didn't cause any paradoxes that will instantly wipe us off of the face of creation! That's a positive!"

"My _life..._ is a series of MOVIES and MUSIC VIDEOS?"

"... and animated shorts..." Penn whispered.

Sunset's head was spinning. Her life, all of her mistakes and problems, every secret, had been broadcast and uploaded to the internet of another WHOLE WORLD? What about when she wanted privacy? What about her innermost thoughts? Was her PAST safe? Did they know anything from BEFORE she had stolen Princess Twilight's crown? Did this mean that her life was nothing but the combined efforts of godlike animators that could end her existence at any moment? Was her "free will" being warped and bent her whole life in order to force her to conform to a predetermined script? _Have I EVER had free will at ALL?_

"S-Sunset? Are you okay?"

Sunset was suddenly drawn back to the present, realizing that she was hyperventilating and her hands were trembling. Instantly, she pressed her hands against her lap to stop the shaking and forced herself to take deep breaths. This was no time for an existential crisis.

Unless that was what the scriptwriters WANTED her to think, in which case the only true act of rebellion she could take would be to HAVE an existential crisis and go against them- Unless they considered an existential crisis to be "in character" and had already written a script based AROUND her having a-

Sunset took another deep breath. She HAD to think clearly. That was not an option, it was a necessity.

"Th-thank you for being honest with me... If you really thought that was going to create a paradox, it must have taken a lot of courage."

Penn nodded and reached into the refrigerator, taking out another red drink and downing half of it in a matter of seconds.

"I don't know how you blowing up a portal between your world and Equestria managed to somehow break the boundaries between my fiction and your reality, but it appears that everything that is fiction here in MY world is beginning to... bleed... over..." The color drained from Penn's face as the full ramifications of what he was saying dawned on him. The hand holding his drink began to tremble as he raised his to his mouth and downed the rest of it in one go. Once he was finished, he looked back down at the bottle. In all honesty, Sunset had no idea what myriad of possibilities were going through his head, and she wasn't certain if she wanted to.

"Oh my stars, all of fiction is becoming reality..." Slowly, he turned his gaze to meet hers, eyes wide with a mix of awe and terror.

"We need to find your friends and fix this. FAST."

  
  



	5. Moving Right Along

"I still want to see them."

"And I STILL think it would be a bad idea!" Penn's voice called back from the closet. "Telling you the truth might not have backfired, but I don't want to THINK about what could happen if you watched your own movies!"

Sunset rolled her eyes. Since they didn't know exactly how far or for how long they would be looking for her friends, Penn was insisting on packing for a week-long trip, at the least. She had to admit, as much as she admired his need to adhere to the motto of "Be Prepared," she couldn't see what they would need all of THIS for. So far, he'd grabbed five binders of trading cards, a collection of the written works of someone called "H.P. Lovecraft," at least three different jackets and coats, and a laptop. And that was just the most recent collection of oddities he had shoved into the trunk of his car alongside a plethora of tools for working on the car, itself. She wondered if he was even going to be able to CLOSE the trunk at this rate.

_Apparently, that old jalopy breaks down every few weeks... I guess I can't fault him for keeping all his tools inside it._

"Al...right! All dressed and ready to head out!" Penn stepped out of the closet, having now changed his clothes and gathered up the last and seemingly most important item: a small stuffed black cat. He was dressed in the same red-and-white baseball cap, but now wore an accompanying bright red flower-patterned shirt and a pair of khaki cargo pants, his pockets stuffed to the brim with chargers, adapters, and portable devices.

Sunset considered telling him that the outfit most definitely would NOT be allowed to stay once they'd rescued Rarity.

"What about you? Anything you think you'll need? Anything that could help?"

Sunset glanced around the room. The only object that caught her eye was the empty handle still clipped to her belt. She had felt a tiny bit bad taking it from the store without a chance or a way to pay for it, but she still felt like it belonged in her hand.

"I... think I've got everything I need."

Penn shrugged, walking his way out of the room with a sigh and a motion for her to follow.

"Well, I packed extra clothes for you. I know mine might be a bit big on you, but it's all I've got."

Sunset smiled. Awful fashion sense or not, Penn seemed to have become a lot less anxious now that the truth was out there, speaking much more freely with her. Sunset wasn't sure just how comfortable she was with how familiar he was with her all of a sudden, but it was overruled quickly by how good it felt to have a _friend_ that had her back. She could deal with someone having a little uncanny knowledge about her.

 _It would be kinda hypocritical of me NOT to, considering I'm a literal mind reader..._ she thought to herself, her hand unconsciously grasping at her geode.

In fact, the thought occurred to her that she still wasn't sure if her geode even still WORKED after everything that had happened. Quietly, she placed one hand on her geode as she walked up behind Penn. Even if she could just brush her hand against the back of his neck, it would be enough to get a glimpse, more than enough to confirm her powers were still there.

_He already knows everything about me, and he lied about it! I mean, this is only fair, right? I should get to know something about him-_

Before she could get the chance, Penn turned around and caught a glimpse of her, ducking violently away and inadvertently throwing himself against the car.

"Whoa! Sunset, what are you DOING? I already TOLD you the truth!"

Sunset felt her face flush as guilt washed over her.

"I- I just wanted to see if my memory-reading still worked. I haven't had any chance to test it."

For the first time, Penn actually looked slightly angry with her, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. He pointed a single accusatory finger at her.

"Not me. Never. Me. If we're going to be friends, I don't want you in my head." He transitioned from pointing at her to pointing at his own head. "We lucked out with YOU, you're already _past_ everything I've seen! Imagine if we accidentally met some character-" The word "character" made Sunset's brow furrow with frustration, and Penn quickly corrected himself. "If we met someBODY who wasn't? Imagine if we accidentally told someone their own _future_? Then telling them that future would change it, which would change what WE knew, which would change what we TOLD them, causing a paradox!" He opened the car door, tossing the last few items into the back seat of his car.

"With time and space overlapping and tearing like it is, we CAN'T risk a paradox!"

Sunset could feel herself pouting. He had a lot of conjecture he was treating as fact, here. Penn ignored her frustration, walking around to the driver's side and opening his door.

"So it's safest if only ONE of us knows this... 'meta' stuff. At least until we can be sure that it can't blow up in our faces. So NO reading my mind!"

Sunset sighed, opening up the passenger-side door and lowering herself into the front seat.

She'd had her doubts when Penn had told her more about his car, a model called a "'97 Oldsmobile 88" that seemed to live up to its name. It was even older than HER by almost a year, and Penn had made several joking remarks about it breaking down at an unsettling rate. It was an unassuming silver sedan, and the interior didn't exactly blow her away, either. The seats and lining of the interior were all gray fabric, unassuming and standard. The brightest addition was a small plush toy hanging from the rearview mirror, a chilling depiction of a yellow creature hanging its neck at an awkward angle and a face that looked as if it had been scribbled on hastily by a child. _Well, I'm DEFINITELY going to enjoy looking THAT in the eyes all day..._

Still, the way Penn settled into the driver's seat with a comfy smile of contentment, even more than he had when he was in his own house, left Sunset wondering if she was missing something. He lovingly ran his hand over the top of the steering wheel before plugging his key into the ignition.

"Alright, sweetheart, I know it's the end of the world, but we've got a job to do!"

With those words of encouragement, he twisted the key and the engine chugged to life. Sunset certainly didn't like the way it seemed to have trouble catching at first, but the engine was soon idling without a problem.

Penn grinned lovingly at the steering wheel and gave it a gentle pat before putting the car in gear and turning out onto the street.

"She's picky, but always pulls through when it matters! So..." Finally, his attention turned back to Sunset as they pulled up at their first stop sign. "I guess we should drive around town and see if we can find any of your friends out and about? Maybe if we're lucky, you all wound up sent to the same general area!"

Sunset nodded. It wasn't much of a plan, but it was a start.

With smile, Penn reached down and switched on the radio.

_**"BEEEEP! BEEEEEEEEP! BEEEEEEEP! VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-"** _

After a couple seconds, he switched it off again.

"Right... National emergency broadcast system... Should have guessed."

"We... should probably listen to that. It might have some information we don't." Sunset suggested, reaching for the radio knob.

Penn made another "eeeeeh?" noise and waggled his hand.

Sunset switched back on the radio.

_"-from the Emergency Broadcast System. There have been reports across the country of unknown phenomena in the skies. All citizens are urged to stay indoors. There have been numerous sightings of dangerous entities, and those who cannot return to their homes must NOT engage with these entities, as many have already proven themselves to be highly dangerous. Please return to your homes and do NOT leave them until it is confirmed safe to do so. More details will be broadcast as facts are confirmed. For your own safety, citizens everywhere are advised to stay indoors-_

Penn sighed, shaking his head and switching it back off again.

"Usually specify these broadcasts by the county or by the state it applies to, I guess this confirms this is happening all over the _country_. Aside from that, I think the two of us have figured out more on our own."

Sunset sunk lower into her seat, staring out the window dejectedly. Catching sight of one of her friends sounded like just about the only thing that could make her feel even slightly better right now.

"Hey, pick a CD. I can't drive without music."

When Sunset turned back to Penn, he was holding up a trio of CDs: _ELV1S: 30 Number 1 Hits, Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2,_ and _Queen: Greatest Hits._

She had no idea what any of those were. _Well, if the galaxy ever needed guardians, now's the time..._ She tapped her finger halfheartedly on the case in the middle. "This one." To her surprise, Penn tossed all three cases into the back seat and pressed a pair of buttons on the radio.

"Awesome! That one's already in there, I listen to it when I'm doing deliveries!"

An upbeat piano began to pound out of the speakers as Penn hopped up and down to the beat.

_"Morning! Today's forecast calls for blue skies!_

_Sun is shining in the sky!_

_There ain't a cloud in sight!_

_It's stopped rainin', everybody's in the lane,_

_and don't you know, it's a beautiful new day! He-e-ey!"_

"Deliveries?"

"Heh, yeah..." Penn chuckled, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head. "I'm a pizza delivery guy. But that works for you! I know every back road of this town like the back of my hand!" He gave her a playful punch on the shoulder. "If your friends are here in town, we'll find them!"

Sunset smiled. Maybe it was the upbeat music, maybe it was his excited attitude, but something about it just put a smile on her face.

_Yeah. We'll find my friends and fix all of this! It'll all be over in less than a day..._

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Okay, maybe if we go down Main Street towards the high school, then circle around down 22nd street again, we can check-"

Sunset sighed, staring at her namesake on the horizon. They had been essentially driving in circles for four hours, and there had been no sign of her friends. They'd been up every alley and down every lane, driven laps through every roundabout until she was dizzy. Sunset was absolutely certain she could draw a map of the town from memory, now. Worst of all, the fuel needle had dropped dangerously close to empty. They were on the last of the three CDs, the collection of songs by an older artist called "Elvis." Somehow, she wasn't surprised Penn had known the words to every single song on the album. Somehow, the song they were on seemed to be mocking their complete lack of results from the search.

_"Return to sender! Address unknown!_

_No such number! No such zone!"_

"Penn, it's getting dark..."

"Oh, don't worry, I'm the night driver! I can see really well just by my headli-"

"They're not here. We're wasting gas. YOUR gas." Sunset grumbled grumpily. "I don't mean to be ungrateful, but I'm pretty sure we're wasting our time. We should fill up the tank and turn in for the night."

After a few moments, Penn sighed and his excited outer shell finally seemed to cave.

"You're... right. And if they're not in Seminole, then we need to figure out a real plan. Texas is BIG, and there's a LOT of empty space between towns."

Sunset breathed a sigh of relief as they turned away from their current route towards Main Street. After a short pause at a stop sign, however, Penn turned back away from the obvious direction and hit the gas with unnecessary force.

"Wha- hey! What are you doing?"

"Humor me for a few blocks..." Penn muttered. Sunset noticed that his smile was gone, and his eyes were fixated on the rearview mirror. Looking behind them, Sunset saw a pair of huge headlights on a pickup truck that looked like it could EAT Penn's Oldsmobile whole. At the next three intersections, Penn turned left, then right, then left again, then circled around the block. For every move he made, the pickup truck mirrored him, staying right behind them on the completely illogical route.

"We're definitely being followed..." Penn muttered, grimacing as he glanced down at the fuel gauge. "I might be able to lose them, but I can't risk getting us out onto the highway to try and put some distance between us." He slowly pulled up to a stop sign, coming to a stop and idling there as he pondered the situation. The song they were listening to finally ended and a new one began.

_"You look like an angel... Walk like an angel..._

"How do you know they don't need help, or something? It DOES seem to be the end of the world. Maybe it could even be one of my friends!"

"If they were trying to send us a message, they would have honked or flickered their lights..." Penn muttered. "One thing people don't realize is that delivery drivers do get a little training in how to respond to these things, we strap signs on top of our cars that basically shout 'Always carrying cash!' At best, this guy is a bully just messing with us. At worst..." He sighed, shaking his head. As Sunset turned to look behind them, she spotted that the two rear doors had opened, and from inside came two tough-looking men. One was holding a crowbar while the other held a baseball bat.

"Robbers?"

_"Talk like an angel..._

"Well, it DOES seem to be the end of the world..." Penn muttered, running his hand over the steering wheel one more time before tightening his grip. "Sunset, hold on to something."

Sunset took a deep breath as the two men strolled up alongside either side of the car, the one with the crowbar on her side. She reached up and took a tight hold on the handle attached to the roof of the car, which Rainbow Dash condescendingly called "chicken handles."

_"But I got wiiiiiiise..."_

Just as one of them was about to knock on the window, Penn slammed his foot on the gas pedal, making the car lurch forward in a squeal of disapproval at the sudden strain. The road robbers seemed just as angry with the development, but by the time they had jumped back into their truck and begun moving, Penn had already put nearly three blocks between them. The truck was only beginning to give a squeal of its own as Penn rounded the first corner at breakneck speed, skidding across the asphalt and just barely pressing the boundaries of spinning out.

The chase was on.

_Yooou're the devil in disguise!_

With mildly appropriate chase music.


	6. A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Gas Station

Sunset's breathing was shallow and as quiet as possible, as if she unconsciously worried their pursuers would be able to hear her and discover their hiding place.

They had spent nearly another half hour driving up and down the town, running stop signs and taking unpredictable paths left, right, and often in circles. If it weren't for her seat belt, she counted at least four times she would have risked being thrown out the window with the way Penn was driving. They had driven up and down the length of the town twice in the hopes of losing their pursuers, finally screeching to a halt in a back alley, where Penn had immediately cut the engine and manually turned off every light, plunging them into pitch blackness. Occasionally, Penn would check his phone in a flash of unnatural light to check how long they had been sitting.

"That's... ten minutes. What do you think?"

Sunset let out a long breath and nodded.

"I'm pretty sure we lost them."

Penn nodded, plugging his key into place and cranking the engine back to life. He sucked in air quickly through his teeth and shook his head.

"No choice but to get gas now... I was honestly worried she wouldn't even start. We won't make it back to my house..."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Sunset asked as the car crawled out of its hiding place and back onto the street.

"Better than walking at night when people have already started raiding and robbing each other..." Penn sighed, shaking his head in disgust. "Seriously, it's been HOURS since the world 'ended,' and people are already at each other's throats. Personally, I blame the rise of post-apocalyptic fantasy. Everybody wants to be the real-life Mad Max."

"Well, I would guess that the fact the city was attacked by a killer alien had something to do with it... But this is still insane. People should be banding together, not fighting each other!"

Penn chuckled darkly to himself. "Welcome to the _real_ world, Sunset. Fear and selfishness are nature, and most folks don't bother trying to be better than that."

Sunset's heart sank. Suddenly, she missed home even more.

"SHOOT!" Penn reached down and hit the switch to turn off his headlights. Looking up, Sunset felt the bottom fall out in her stomach:

Parked at the new gas station was the same huge truck that had chased them all over town.

"Okay, there's another gas station if we take Main Street back up to-"

 _"Chgchgchgch-ch-ch..."_ The car shuddered and spit as the engine switched off. Penn's eyes widened as he tried desperately to get the engine to turn over and catch again, to no avail. In a split-second decision, he turned them to coast into the station, having just enough force behind them to carry them right up to the closest pump. With some excessive force, Penn shifted the car into "park" and slapped his hand against the steering wheel.

"You've got an _AWFUL_ sense of humor, you know that?" he shouted at the dashboard.

Even inside the car, Sunset felt exposed. It was the total opposite of their hiding place in the alley: open, well-lit, and completely conspicuous and vulnerable.

"What are we going to do?"

Penn sighed, reaching into his pocket and retrieving his wallet. With a long sigh, he retrieved an unfamiliar bill with a 20 printed in the corners, then snapped it shut again. He searched around for a moment before settling his eyes on the glovebox. He reached over, yanking it open and pulling it out of place. He tossed the rest of his wallet into the mess of wires and fuses hidden behind the glovebox before wordlessly popping it back into place.

"I'm going to go buy gas. Lock the doors behind me."

"Are you NUTS?" Sunset grabbed violently at his shoulder, yanking him back down into his seat. "At best, those maniacs are in that truck, waiting to mug you before you make it into the store! At WORST, they could kill you the moment they lay eyes on you!"

Penn motioned to their surroundings helplessly. "Well, they're GOING to notice us! Confrontation is impossible to avoid, here! That's why I'm only taking this 20! They can rob me blind, I'll go with it willingly and tell them it's all we've got, then when they leave we can buy our gas and go!"

Sunset shook her head. "That doesn't mean they won't still beat the crap out of you, especially once they realize YOU'RE the one who's been running them all over town! You _can't_ go in there alone!"

"Ooooooh no! You are staying RIGHT here! Where it's-"

"Safe?" Sunset rapped her knuckles against the glass window. "Yeah! Totally _crowbar_ -proof!" She jabbed her finger into Penn's chest. "I am NOT going to just sit here while you risk your life for a gallon of gas!"

Penn groaned, leaning back in his seat.

"Oh yeah? Well, what's YOUR plan?"

Sunset thought for a moment.

"I go in with the money-"

"No."

"-and you wait thirty seconds before you come in swinging. They have weapons, but I'm fairly certain I could take out at _least_ one and get one of those weapons into OUR hands."

Penn raised an eyebrow.

"YOU could take one of them out? 'Miss Toothpicks-For-Arms?'"

Sunset narrowed her eyes in frustration, though it quickly melted into a smirk. In a quick motion, she snatched the front of his shirt and yanked him forward. At the same time, she raised her other hand and threw a heavy punch, stopping millimeters from his nose. Penn's eyes were wide with surprise and fear, frozen completely out of fear.

"First dan black belt in karate. Don't even _start_ thinking I'm helpless."

"Y-yes, ma'am..." Penn stuttered as Sunset released him.

"Good. Now, we're going with my plan."

Penn pondered the situation for another moment, then sighed in resignation.

"Fine."

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Sunset entered the front doors of the store, her heart was pounding in her chest. As much as she was trying to look tough for Penn, she'd never actually had to use her training in a fight against real people. Most people tended to concede to her any time she mentioned the words "black belt," but a first-level black belt was like a bachelor's degree of martial arts: still only the beginning for a dedicated student. It meant she had only a firm grasp of all the fundamentals.

_Guess it's time to put my skills to the test..._

Inside, the same men from before were standing in front of the counter.

"Now, don't make this difficult. Put the money and the cigarettes in the bag, and then sit on the floor until we leave. No alarms, no calling the police." The first one urged, tapping his crowbar expectantly against the counter.

"Not that they'd come!" the second one piped up. "They're all out tryin' to stop those metal monsters!"

_Metal monsters? Does that means there's MORE daleks out there?_

The cashier seemed surprisingly nonplussed by all of this, sighing and opening the register.

"Hey! We're serious!"

The young woman gave the robber a tired glare.

"Buddy, the world is ending and I'm STILL clocked into my minimum wage job until my manager gets here to relieve me. They don't _pay_ me enough to scream when we're getting robbed." She sighed, carefully thumbing out bills one by one from the cash drawer. "You'll get your money, but don't expect a big performance out of me."

Enough was enough, Sunset had wasted enough time, already. Gathering up her courage, she loudly cleared her throat, causing the two robbers to jump and immediately turn on her.

"It looks like you fellas might be a while, is there a chance I could sneak in to pay for some gas? I can put the money right in the bag, if that's easier for you?"

The cashier shrugged, gesturing to the open bag.

"Or how about you just give us EVERYTHING you've got and get on the floor?" The one with the baseball bat waggled it threateningly in her direction. Sunset sucked in air through her teeth and turned her pockets inside out.

"Sorry, all I've got's the 20, it was emergency money."

The thug with the bat moved closer.

"Well, if you need gas, that means you've got a CAR, don'tcha? Toss me the keys."

Sunset repeated the act of sucking air through her teeth, shrugging her shoulders.

"The keys are in the car-"

"Do you think I'm STUPID?"

"-being held by my buddy with the _shotgun._ "

Behind her, Sunset heard the telltale clicking of a gun being cocked. In a moment, her mind did the math: two had gotten out to harass them in the car before they escaped. That meant there had to have been one more behind the wheel.

"A shotgun, huh? I think that could come in VERY handy for protecting our _new car._ "

Sunset didn't turn, she simply calculated a few things based on how high the voice sounded. She breathed deeply, then exhaled slowly, taking a moment to find her center.

"Hi-YAH!"

Calm and collected, Sunset Shimmer spun on her heel, planted her feet, and threw the hardest punch she possibly could into the chest of the man behind her, striking right at the solar plexus. The only noise he made as all the air rushed out of his lungs was a soft wheeze. As he doubled over, Sunset wrapped her arm over his, keeping the gun pointed away from her as she lifted upwards, overextending the man's elbow and forcing him to release the pistol in his hand. Her free hand reached down and snatched it. With a smooth motion, she brought her knee up and into his forehead, knocking him unconscious, then spun back around, turning the gun on the two robbing the store.

The one with the crowbar dropped his weapon out of pure shock. The one with the baseball bat's jaw hung open, but still kept a grip on the bat. Identifying the bigger threat, Sunset trained the gun on him.

"Now then, you two are going to _apologize_ to this nice clerk, then pick up your friend, _go home,_ and wait patiently in your houses until the emergency broadcast tells you it's safe to go back out. Understand?"

All at once, the front door of the station flew open as Penn dashed inside, an x-shaped tire iron gripped in one hand as an improvised weapon raised above his head.

"AAAAAA- huh?" His eyes went first to the gun in Sunset's hand, then to the man on the ground behind her, and finally to the other two muggers and the clerk, who gave a casual shrug.

"Don't worry, Penn. Things are under control."

"I- I guess they ARE!"

"Just make sure this guy doesn't get back up without me knowing." Sunset kicked the body behind her with her heel.

"Will... do..." Penn seemed more perplexed than anything, but dutifully followed her instructions, guarding the unconscious body so Sunset was free to walk across the room. She advanced on the man with the baseball bat, motioning for him to drop it. With a sour look on his face, he followed her instructions, letting it clatter to the floor. As the two of them took steps towards her, however, Sunset narrowed her eyes, pointing up and firing into the ceiling.

"WOAH WOAH, WHAT? We're LEAVING!"

"You're forgetting something..."

Baseball bat guy stared at her in disbelief.

"Y-you're serious?"

Sunset nodded.

With total exasperation, the man walked back up to the register, snatching the empty bag. "I'm... sorry."

The other one lined up behind him, waiting his turn.

"Ah'm sorry, too..."

For the first time, the clerk smiled, the only affirmation she seemed to be ready to give them. Sunset kept herself out of reach and the gun trained on them as they walked over and picked up their third member, carrying him out the door. A few seconds later, the truck roared to life and sped away. Penn finally lowered his improvised weapon, turning and staring at Sunset, dumbfounded.

"That... was probably the coolest thing I've ever seen in my life. And I killed a dalek today."

Sunset's cheeks flushed a bit as she lowered the gun, setting it on the ground.

"I- I HATE those things..." Sunset couldn't hold back a shudder in her voice. It had taken everything she had not to jump and shout with surprise when she had fired the gun, she had never shot a gun before in her life and the noise and force of it was more than she had expected, even from a small handgun.

Penn nodded, scowling and picking up the gun with two fingers before placing it on the counter.

"You'll probably get more use out of this than us."

The clerk smiled again, picking up the gun and giving it a satisfied cock before spinning it expertly on her finger and tucking it into her belt.

"You two needed gas?"

"Yes!" Sunset smiled and placed the 20 on the counter, only for the clerk to shake her head.

"Tell you what: for whatever little it's worth, whenever you two wanna fill up it's on me."

"Really?"

"Yeah, no prob. I'll give you free gas for life, if I can. Or at least until my manager shows up."

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" Sunset jumped up with glee, reaching around the counter and giving the clerk an awkward hug. Penn's response was much more reserved, a grateful nod and a sincere smile.

"We really can't thank you enough."

The clerk smiled and tapped a few buttons on the register.

"Make sure you get the good stuff, 'kay?"

Sunset grinned and nodded enthusiastically, waving goodbye as they both left out the front door again.

A few minutes later, they were pulling back up outside Penn's house with a full tank of gas for the morning. Penn let out a long sigh as he put the car in park and removed the key.

"Well, as grateful as I am for the free gas, I'd have to call today a bust... Sorry, Sunset."

"What are you sorry for? You were already more help than I could have asked for!"

Penn shrugged, tossing his keys up and down to himself.

"Well, we'll have to try to figure out a plan for tomorrow. The next town over is about a half-hour drive west of here, that would take us into New Mexico. Cities and towns are few and far between, but if your friends landed between them, we could be searching for YEARS checking every cotton field and pumpjack for signs of them!"

Sunset nodded in affirmation. Just driving through town, she could tell that off-roading was not an option, and going on foot wouldn't be possible in this heat.

"I'll just have to trust that each of them can make it to civilization on their own if they got dropped in the middle of nowhere..."

Penn nodded, placing a firm hand on her shoulder and giving it a reassuring squeeze.

"Look, your friends all have superpowers, right? They'll be fine."

Sunset reached up and held her geode in the palm of her hand.

"If they still work at all..."

There was a tense beat of silence. Penn tapped thoughtfully on his chin, staring intensely at the geode, then at Sunset. After several seconds, he let out a long groan of defeat and held out his arm in front of her.

"Look. JUST tell me what I'm thinking about RIGHT NOW, okay? No looking at my memories, got it?"

Sunset glanced up, surprised.

"I thought you said-"

"This is a ONE TIME offer, okay? If your powers don't work in this world, then the search for your friends is a lot more urgent. Consider it confirmation they're safe."

Sunset smiled, nodding and placing one hand on the geode. After a moment's hesitation, she placed her other hand on Penn's wrist.

_So, if you HAD tried to smash the portal to Equestria with a sledgehammer, wouldn't the hammer have just gone through the portal? In what way did that bluff make ANY sense?_

Sunset quickly released her grip on his arm, having gotten all of the confirmation she needed her powers were still working.

"Well?"

"Look, I was under pressure, okay? I was REALLY expecting to still win the Fall Formal! I worked with what I had, and it wasn't much!"

Penn smirked, opening his door and slipping outside.

"Come on, Sunset. Let's go put together our plan for tomorrow."

Sunset sighed and shook her head, but she couldn't hold back a smile as she stepped out of the other side of the car. She felt much more confident that her friends would be safe now that she could be sure that they still had their powers.

_Just hang in there, girls... We're on our way!_

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Skye had to admit, she was surprised that ANY businesses were still open.

"Guess even the end of the world isn't enough to make some people give up minimum wage..." she muttered to herself as she stepped through the door of the gas station. Still, she didn't have time to consider the moral implications of a system that would compel employees to keep working through the end of the world, she had a mission to do.

"Lovely weather we're having..." the attendant muttered sarcastically. "Can I help you?"

"Actually, maybe you can?" Skye reached into her pocket, retrieving a piece of paper and unfolding it before placing it on the counter. "I'm looking for a couple friends of mine, we got separated a few days ago."

The girl picked up the paper, examining it closely before smiling in recognition.

"Oh! Red and her buddy! Yeah, they just came through here about an hour ago! Saved my hide and got me this!" She reached down and held up a handgun.

Skye smiled. "That's... really cool! Just the kind of thing they'd do! Do you know where they went?"

The attendant shrugged. "Beats me. They just filled their tank and left."

Skye repressed a double-take. In the footage from the hardware store they had walked away, so the team had assumed they were stuck on foot.

"They were driving? Can you tell me what kind of car they were in?"

The attendant shook her head and shrugged.

"I dunno. Wouldn't you already know that if you're their friend?"

"Well, when we got split up, they were on foot. They must have found a car they could use."

"And they sure weren't looking for anybody when they got here..." The attendant muttered, narrowing her eyes suspiciously. Skye could tell it was time to bail. She quickly grabbed the photograph, folding it back up and shoving it in her pocket.

"Well, thanks anyway. You've been a HUGE help, just letting me know that I'm on the right path! Thank you!" Before the attendant could ask any more questions, she quickly made her way back out the front door and around the corner. She raised one hand to her ear, activating the communicator.

"Hey, Coulson! I've got a lead on the targets, but I'm going to need access to this gas station's security cameras."

_"Good work, Skye. Fitz, get on that ASAP."_

_"Yes, sir! I'm on my way, Skye."_

Skye rolled her eyes as she pulled her phone out of her pocket.

"Bet I can get in with my phone before you get here, Fitz!"

Skye hadn't been working with these SHIELD agents for very long, but she was quickly learning to make a place for herself on the team. Now they were all pushing their limits trying to find out the source of this alien invasion and how to stop it, and she had found their best lead yet.

_Man, first these two kids take down a killer alien robot, then save somebody in a gas station and give her a gun? For people without superpowers, they're sure acting like they could be superheroes. Can't wait to meet them..._

  
  



	7. Secret Agent Woman

"So, if we REALLY book it, we should be able to hit Hobbs, Seagraves, and Lamesa all in one day, right?" Sunset tapped her pen against her chin as she stared at the local map Penn had pulled up on his laptop.

"That would let us cover at least three towns in one day..." Sunset hummed quietly to herself, not quite satisfied. "But what about some of these larger cities? Do you think we could make it to Andrews in the same day?"

Penn hummed quietly, making a so-so motion with his hand.

"Depends on how thorough you want to be in each town. Plus each of those towns are in different directions, so we're moving radially, but that increases our travel time-" he was cut off by a loud knocking on his door.

He and Sunset both stared at each other, eyes wide with surprise. Quickly, Penn darted to the tools sitting on a nearby shelf and picked up a hammer. He held it close behind his back and walked to the door.

"Times like this, I REALLY wish I had a peephole..." he whispered before cracking the door open slightly, only enough for a peek outside. Sunset heard his breath catch in his throat in surprise, but he quickly recovered his nerve.

"Hello... Can I help you?"

"Hi! Are you the owner of that car out there?" a female voice asked. Sunset couldn't see anything through the tiny crack in the door, but she saw Penn's grip on the hammer tighten. She quietly rose back up to her feet, getting into a ready position in case things went downhill.

"Yes, that's my car." Penn's voice sounded tight, terse. He was on edge. Sunset didn't want to think about what could go wrong here, but she had to be ready for anything. Whatever crazy, messed-up world she was in, she was a long way from Canterlot. There was no way for her to expect what would happen next, and that left her deeply unsettled.

"Ah! Wonderful! Do you mind if we ask you a few questions?" a second voice asked. This one was male, and spoke with a Scottish accent.

"About what? I'm a bit... occupied... at the moment." Penn murmured. Sunset felt a twinge of guilt at the idea that they might be turning away someone who needed their help, but as long as they couldn't be certain of the strangers' intent they had to be careful.

"Please, it won't take long!" the woman pleaded.

"We're with SHIELD, we need your help with THIS!" the man insisted.

For a moment, Penn seemed to recoil in surprise. He took a deep breath. "Just... one second." He quickly pulled himself away from the door, pressing it shut as he spun on his heel back to Sunset.

"Okay, so, uh... They have a picture of the dalek. The one we blew up."

Sunset's eyes widened. "But that was just a few HOURS ago! How could they already-"

"They're _spies,_ Sunset. SHIELD is an intelligence organization. Think like if you crossed 'James Bond' with 'X-Files' and tossed in a healthy dash of 'Men In Black.'"

Sunset tried to make sense of the gibberish, but she couldn't make heads or tails of it. "I have no idea what any of those are."

Penn sighed in a way that made Sunset feel very stupid, rubbing his temple in thought.

"The Strategic Homeland... Intelligence- No! _Intervention_ Logistics Division. They're the spies who deal with the stuff people aren't supposed to see for their own good. Aliens, superheroes, stuff like that."

Sunset's eyes narrowed as she put the pieces together. _For their own good? What would some shady government organization decide is good for me NOT to know?_

"It spells SHIELD."

"They ARE the good guys, mostly..."

"Mostly?"

"Depends on where we are in their history..." He muttered, tapping his chin thoughtfully. He jumped into the air as pounding began again on the door, eyes wide in surprise as he momentarily lost his composure. He hastily rammed his shoulder against the door, shoving shut the crack the knocking had pushed it open. "H-HOLD ON! JUST A MINUTE!"

He quickly stepped forward, motioning for Sunset to get close, which she obliged.

"I recognize these two. They're good ones, through and through. Them and _most_ of their team."

" _Most_?" The word sent a fearful chill down Sunset's spine.

"We'd be safe working with them. I can promise you that." Penn's tone shifted, and Sunset knew he was trying his best to be earnestly reassuring. It was completely transparent, Sunset could see his hands clenching and unclenching with anxiety, but the effort still gave her some measure of comfort. It was enough for her to trust him about the strangers.

"But only if you're okay with working with them. If you want me to keep that door shut and keep this between the two of us, I will."

Sunset blinked. THAT had caught her off-guard.

"But if you know them, that means they're some kind of tv-show heroes or something, right?" Penn nodded, enthusiastically agreeing. "And you'd just... tell them to go away if I asked?"

Penn blinked, as if surprised at himself, then nodded.

"Why?"

Penn paused, his eyes shifting from side to side in thought.

"You need me. They're secret agents from a world of superheroes. They can manage, but you're alone."

Sunset smiled, feeling a familiar warmth beginning to grow in her chest.

"Well, you're wrong about one thing..." She reached out, quickly wrapping her arms around Penn's shoulders and pulling him into a tight hug. After a short second, she released him again, giving him a smile to match her joy.

"I'm _not_ alone. I've got a friend right here, and he's pretty cool."

Penn's eyebrows raised and his eyes widened in surprise, as if Sunset had just bestowed some kind of big honor on him. Before he could reply, Sunset smirked and pointed to the door.

"That's our minute. Let's meet some super spies."

Penn looked back at the door, then at Sunset. A gigantic grin spread across his face as he began to hop up and down on the balls of his feet, and a whining noise began to squeak out.

"EeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEE-"

Sunset raised an eyebrow. This was the kind of reaction she usually expected from Pinkie Pie. Penn seemed to catch her reaction and quickly cut off his squeeing. He took a deep breath, held his hand level, and pushed it down. Once he'd calmed down, his face settled back to quiet indifference.

"Play it cool, Penn.." he muttered to himself. After a moment, he turned back and opened the door completely, revealing the two strangers standing outside. He made a quick motion with his hand for them to come inside, which they quickly did. Sunset felt a twinge of sympathy as they both looked around in surprise at the house and the man shied anxiously away from the exposed wires of the light switches. As they stepped inside, Penn casually made his way over to where they had been sitting and nudged his laptop shut with his foot.

The woman had long, dark hair and wore casual clothing with a light jacket. The man behind her had his curly hair cut short and wore a dress shirt and tie beneath a light semi-formal coat.

"So, you wanted to speak to us?" Sunset asked, offering her hand to the woman with a welcoming smile. "My name is Sunset."

"Skye! I'm Skye," she took Sunset's hand and gave it a quick shake. She seemed nervous, which was hardly surprising at the end of the world. "And this is Fitz." The man raised his free hand in a small wave, and Sunset could see a laptop clutched in his other hand.

"Just 'Penn' is fine for me." Penn grinned and took his turn to shake Skye's hand, then Fitz's. "Sorry about that. We've been dealing with a lot, SHIELD agents showing up on our doorstep was a bit much on top of the day we've had."

"Oh, I'd believe it! I mean, we saw your handiwork back at the hardware store!" Skye reached into her pocket and produced a piece of paper. After some un-folding, Sunset was staring at a picture of herself and Penn beside the shattered dalek, looking as if it had been taken from a security camera in the store. "That was really something!"

"It was more luck, really!" Penn interjected with a nervous chuckle.

"Well, if you could forgive us for getting right to the point," Fitz muttered, "so far, you two are the only ones to have encountered one of these _things_ and lived to tell the tale, let alone BEAT one! We need to know what you know about them and HOW you destroyed it!"

Sunset and Penn glanced at one another. Penn's eyes were wide with fear, and Sunset felt a shiver run down her spine.

"So there really are more out there?" Sunset asked, getting a grim nod in return from Skye.

"And everywhere they go, they leave a trail of destruction and death in their wake. They're hellbent on _total extermination!_ THAT is why we need your help! Every weapon is completely ineffective, and they have proven impossible to reason with!"

Penn hummed quietly to himself, placing his hand thoughtfully on his chin.

"Sounds about right. They have a protective field that vaporizes incoming projectiles and absorbs energy weapons..."

"And you see, THAT is what we need!" Skye declared, pointing emphatically at Penn.

Fitz stepped up, giving Penn a curious look. "That DOES explain why you resorted to melee weapons in the footage we found... How do you know so much about these things, anyway? You talk like you're some kind of expert!"

Sunset and Penn exchanged a nervous glance. Sunset wanted to tell the truth, but Penn gave her an almost-imperceptible shake of his head to warn her against it. He anxiously cleared his throat and turned back to Skye and Fitz.

"Same way I got to be pretty knowledgeable about tornadoes and the blue-ringed octopus: morbid fascination."

Skye and Fitz exchanged disbelieving looks, and even Sunset had to admit that it felt like a flimsy excuse, mostly trying to change the subject.

"Well, either way, we're going to need your help if we're going to stand any chance of stopping the rest of these monsters!"

"'The rest?' How many are we talking about?" Sunset asked, feeling dread building up in her stomach. Modesty aside, Penn hadn't been lying when he'd said that they had beaten the dalek with a LOT of luck. If there were more of them out there, that was very, _very_ bad news.

"There have been at least a dozen sightings, not including yours. And yours has been the only one that has been stopped."

"We need your help. Anything you can offer would help us would save who-knows-how-many lives..." Skye placed her hand on Penn's shoulder and squeezed it.

Now, Sunset hadn't known Penn for very long, but it was easy to see the change come over him. She could almost see his faux-impassiveness melt away, his shoulders slumped and his posture falter.

"Y-yeah! I'd be happy to help..."

Sunset glanced at Skye, who seemed to have noticed the same transformation and quickly removed her hand.

"Grrrreat! Well, if you wouldn't mind coming with us, we have a vehicle waiting outside that'll be happy to take you to meet the rest of our team and fill us in on how we can beat these things."

Penn snapped out of his stupor, reaching into his pocket and retrieving a small ring of keys. "No need! I've got my own ride!"

"Oh, no!" Fitz smiled, jutting his thumb towards the door. "Our vehicle is top-of-the-line! Bulletproof glass, automatic GPS, the best defense systems SHIELD has to offer!"

Penn's eyes narrowed slightly as he flicked his keys expertly around his ring finger.

"I get antsy if I'm not driving. No offense to SHIELD, but I think I'd prefer my own car."

"But you'd me MUCH SAFER-" Fitz started to argue, only for Skye to step between them.

"You know what? I totally understand. I used to have this van, it was my mobile base of operations, I never wanted to leave it!" After a moment, she reached out and gripped his shoulder again. Instantly, the result of earlier was repeated, Penn's tension melting away at her touch. Skye used her other hand to flick a few strands of hair out of her face before twisting one around her finger and giving it a twirl. "But I _really_ wouldn't want anything bad to happen to you, you know? Our car is a LOT safer..."

Sunset knew that move. She'd seen Rarity do it a thousand times whenever she needed something heavy moved. She'd taught Sunset that with the right demeanor, a lady could wrap men around her finger as easily as that strand of hair.

Penn glanced forlornly between Skye and his keys, obviously torn.

_Okay, guess it's up to me to be the tiebreaker..._

"Hey, Penn?" Sunset stepped beside him and gave his side a gentle nudge. "You already pushed your car pretty hard today, I bet the engine still hasn't even cooled off! Why don't we just take the ride in the _armored vehicle?_ You've been behind the steering wheel all day!"

When Penn turned to look at her, the disappointment in his eyes made Sunset feel almost guilty for not taking his "side" in the argument. With a forlorn sigh, he slipped the keys back into his pocket, then motioned to the door.

"Well, let's not waste time, then..."

As Skye and Fitz made their way out the door, Sunset smiled and draped a comforting arm over his shoulders.

"Maybe next time, buddy."

Penn rolled his eyes, failing to suppress a smile as he turned back to her.

"Yeah, whatever you say, Benedict Arnold..."

"You KNOW I have no idea who that is!"

The two of them both giggled at the silly exchange. Penn pulled himself out from under her arm in order to lock up the front door. As she waited, Sunset leaned in close to whisper in his ear.

"I don't have to be a mind reader to see... You _totally_ have a crush on Skye, don't you?"

Penn's eyes widened and darted from side to side nervously.

"Say _one word_ and I'm telling EVERYONE that you're 'Flanksy.'"

It was Sunset's turn to be shocked.

"How did you- Right, multi-dimensional TV... That's still REALLY freaky!"

Penn nodded, gesturing to his eyes, then pointing back to Sunset.

Sunset tried to hide an involuntary shiver that ran down her spine.

_I kept my art as 'Flanksy' secret from EVERYONE except Rarity! That was my place to be alone, sort myself out! Is NOTHING sacred?_

"Hey! What's the holdup?" Skye asked, motioning towards the rear passenger door of the black humvee parked beside Penn's car.

Penn immediately jumped to attention, running over to his car and popping open the trunk. "Just grabbing something important!"

Sunset sighed and rolled her eyes, once again tabling the existential crisis under "think about it _later_." With a few steps, she was at the humvee. Penn silently fell into line behind her, now sporting a black pack of some kind on his belt.

"What's that?" she asked as she clambered into the back seat and buckled her seat belt.

"This? Just a little... experiment... I wanted to try."

Instantly, Sunset's expression turned sour as irritation gnawed at her insides.

"Do you have a hypothesis?"

The question seemed to catch Penn off-guard.

"W-well, of sorts! I mean- Yeah, hopefully!"

"And a control group? A set of parameters that will remain constant? Proper means of measurement and documentation?"

"I THINK it's going to be pretty obvious if something about these have changed now that the multiverse is broken..." Penn patted the pack on his belt lovingly before turning back to her with a concerned expression. "Are you okay, Sunset?"

Sunset's temper quickly receded, leaving her less angry and slightly embarrassed.

"Sorry, it kind of irks me when people use 'experiment' without actually knowing what it means or the proper scientific method..."

Penn's eyebrows raised in surprise and his expression changed to one of mild shock before a warm, satisfied smile overtook him.

"Now THERE is something I _didn't_ know about you!"

With those words, the vehicle surged forward and they were on their way to parts unknown. From her place in the passenger seat, Skye twisted around to face them.

"Okay, so, why don't you fill us in about these killer alien robots-"

"Cyborgs!" Fitz indignantly interjected.

From the way Skye rolled her eyes, she could tell that it was a correction that she was actively ignoring.

"cyborg, thingies?"

Penn's smile turned southward and his expression became somber.

"They're called Daleks... And if you want to know as much as I can tell you about them, then it's best that I start at the beginning..."

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Imagine a world war raging across a far-away planet. A war of attrition so intense that it had been fought for a thousand years, with every conceivable weapon from bows and arrows to nuclear bombs. Weapons straight out of nightmares, capable of dragging down unfortunate souls down into the earth in an instant."

Penn spoke solemnly as he and Sunset sat together in the back seat of a black Humvee with darkened windows. He had tried to oppose the idea of not taking his own car, but the agents had been insistent that they couldn't know the location of their base. After a few minutes of heated discussion, Penn had finally relented.

"That sounds awful..." Skye muttered, turning around in the passenger seat to look straight at them.

"Beyond words." Penn nodded quietly. "Eventually, overuse of nuclear weapons led to both of the warring races locking themselves in near-impenetrable bunkers while their footsoldiers did battle in no-man's land. The Kaleds and the Thral were determined to destroy one another in total genocide. Any neutral parties were left to rot and decay in the nuclear wastelands, becoming the 'Mutoes.'"

"Kaleds? Thrals? Mutoes? As fascinating as all this is, it seems like you're telling us about everything except the daleks..." Fitz muttered. Skye quickly shushed him, slapping his arm before turning back to Penn.

"Sorry, he's a little grumpy because he had to go knocking door to door trying to find you two."

"Yeah! And do you know how many times I got mistaken for some apocalypse evangelical? It was embrassin'!"

"Bear with me. Their history is important." Penn chuckled. "And sorry, that's what happens when you go door to door in the Bible Belt. Anyway, to go on..."

"The Kaleds became ruled by the science branch of their military, a Technocracy focused entirely on weapons development. It was there that their chief scientist, Davros, developed a new technological marvel: the Mark III Travel Machine. It was a tank, immune to bullets and radiation, armed with a high-powered laser, unparalleled processing power, and the ability to stand above any and all other armies." Penn leaned forward, his brow furrowing. "Davros was a genius, pure and unadulterated... and an absolute sociopath. At the center of each and every one of these machines was a muto, a kaled mutated beyond recognition by a combination of high radiation exposure and brutal genetic modification. The process drove their killing intent to its absolute maximum while rendering it devoid of all other emotions. The Mark III Travel Machines were the most powerful weapons of the war, genocidally bloodthirsty and completely obedient, without any physical weakness. They were the perfect soldiers."

Penn let loose a long, long sigh, as if all this talking was tiring him out. Sunset had to admit, it was quite the story.

"Mad science given unchecked power and the resources of an entire species..." Fitz whispered under his breath, sounding more impressed than horrified. "Imagine what could be accomplished if he had been designing something constructive, rather than weapons of mass destruction?"

Penn nodded in agreement. "It's the constant question of scientific development: 'can' versus 'should.' Through clever use of trickery, Davros manipulated both sides of the war to encourage the production of these creatures. Unfortunately, Davros realized too late that he had given his creations too much free will as he had filled their minds with the doctrine of their own superiority..." Penn shook his head in disapproval. "The daleks refused to take orders from a non-dalek, it was against their directive to do so. They killed him before he could stop the production line and declared themselves the master race of the universe, vowing to destroy all other life."

Everyone's eyes widened in shock.

"Sounds like some... freaky conglomeration of Frankenstein's monster, Nazis, and War of the Worlds..." Skye muttered, anxiously tapping her fingers against the seat.

"Yeah. Makes me wonder what could've happened if HYDRA had succeeded in their mission." Fitz whispered to himself, just barely loud enough for Sunset to hear.

Her urge to ask what HYDRA was was quickly cut off as Penn continued the story.

"Eventually, the Daleks developed technologies powerful enough to travel through space, threatening to make good on their claim. With time, they even developed time travel technology."

"Wait, they can TIME TRAVEL?" Sunset finally couldn't restrain herself. This was crossing the line from science into science fiction... which, if Penn was right about fiction and reality eroding, was a believable line to cross.

"Impossible. Time Travel violates the laws of physics. You can go forward in time if you get close enough to the speed of light, but backwards violates all known laws of the universe!" Fitz declared, pounding his hand against the steering wheel to emphasize his point.

"Yeah! Besides, if these guys want to wipe out all life in the universe AND have time travel, that's game over, right? Why not just go back to when life first started to form and wipe it all out there?" Skye shook her head. "It makes no sense."

"It does if they weren't the FIRST to invent time travel." Penn declared, leaning forward and tapping on Fitz's shoulder. "And I would have thought a man of science would be the first to admit that the laws of science never stay the same for long, they're rewritten with each new discovery."

"The Daleks challenged the original race to discover time travel, the Time Lords, in the bloodiest and most brutal war to ever happen. It was so awful, it was locked away in a shut-off portion of time so that none of the terrible weapons used by either party could escape into the rest of the universe. It was win or die, and both sides only accomplished the latter. They destroyed each other, wiping one another out of the sky... But some daleks still remain. They remain, recruit, and multiply. Their arch nemesis is one of the last of the Time Lords, and I would wager that's why they haven't tried anything like going back to the start of creation. He tends to make himself a real thorn in their sides. But right now we can't just sit and wait for him to show up. The Daleks CAN be fought, but it isn't easy. You have to either exploit what one or two weaknesses they have or carve out one for yourself."

"So, what kind of weaknesses? That's kind of the part we came to you for."

The conversation was cut short as the car drove up a steep incline and came to a stop.

"We're here." Fitz declared.

"How about I get to the practical part with the whole team present, huh?" Penn's somber tone was suddenly replaced by a cheerful demeanor as he popped open the door on his side of the car and practically jumped out with excitement.

Sunset cracked open her door and stepped out , finding herself standing in an enclosed area 99 percent comprised of steel. They had driven directly into some kind of airplane cargo hold, and she could see an amazing-looking laboratory behind a pair of glass doors. Above them, a man was climbing down a set of spiral stairs. He was dressed in a sharp-looking suit and a smug smile.

"I've gotta admit, I've seen a lot of crazy things in my time, but that is _quite_ the story!" He quickly descended the rest of the stairs and walked up to Sunset, offering a handshake. "Agent Coulson, nice to meet you."

"Sunset... Sunset Shimmer."

"You... you were broadcasting me over comms, weren't you?" Penn asked, sounding impressed.

"Fastest way to bring the team up to speed." Agent Coulson was completely unapologetic, even a little smug, as far as Sunset could see.

"Well, if I'd known that I had an audience, I would have made a better show out of it all."

Sunset took a glimpse at Penn, catching his expression. He seemed to be slightly in awe, but Sunset could tell the look on his face was one of recognition.

"Well, it was a nice story, but what we need right now are those weaknesses you were talking about. Think you can oblige?" Coulson walked to Penn, offering him the same handshake, which Penn took with enthusiasm.

"For you, sir? Definitely. Your reputation precedes you. I heard a lot about the battle in New York, looked into it rather extensively. Glad to see you well."

Coulson's poker face didn't falter, though Sunset noticed his smile quickly fade. "You know an awful lot about a lot of things, don't you?"

Penn shrugged off the comment. "I browse, dip in and out of things, pick up enough to understand but not enough to be an expert."

"You seem to be an expert on the Daleks."

"Call it a morbid fascination. I like learning about things that can kill me." Penn folded his arms over his chest. "You guys have data on how many there are and where they are, right? How we should approach this is very different depending on if we're dealing with scouts or a full-on invasion."

There was a beat of silence.

"Follow me." Coulson turned and headed back up the stairs, quickly followed by Fitz. Skye glanced between the two of them, then nodded to the staircase.

"Well, you two are getting a better first experience than I did, considering you're not locked in the brig being interrogated..." she whispered. Sunset could tell she was only half-joking.

"Would you give us a minute?" Sunset asked. "I... need a second to talk to him alone. I have some questions."

Skye pondered for a moment, then nodded and quickly mounted the steps, disappearing onto the next level. Sunset quickly turned to Penn. Now out of sight, his expression had completely changed: his face was one of rapturous joy, his jaw hanging wide open in a smile the likes of which Sunset hadn't seen since Pinkie discovered the existence of "cupcake fountains."

"We. Just met. _Phil Coulson!_ " he barely contained a gleeful squee, clapping his hand over his own mouth to stifle the noise. He was hopping up and down in place with excitement in a completely undignified manner.

"PENN! Get a hold of yourself!" Sunset grabbed his shoulders, forcing him back down to the ground and pulling him in close. "Who is he? Why are you so excited?"

Penn finally calmed down a bit, taking several deep breaths and making a sweeping motion with his hand to ease his nerves. "I'm excited because we're on a real-life SHIELD airship, and we just met one of the best agents in all of SHIELD! Agent Coulson helped organize one of the greatest teams of superheroes to ever exist!" He started eagerly making his way towards the stairwell. "Just don't say anything you don't want going on record and you should be fine, Sunny."

"Did... did you just call me 'Sunny?'"

Penn paused for a moment, turning and giving her a shrug. "Sorry, I got a bit excited. Is Sunny okay?"

Sunset blinked a couple of times, then sighed. "Just... stick with 'Sunset' for now, okay?"

Penn nodded before eagerly rushing up the stairway. Sunset chuckled to herself a little at the display. If he didn't manage to get his excitement under control, his status as a fanboy would be given away completely in moments.

"Penn! Keep it together! 'Play it cool,' right?"

"Right, right!" He drew up short at the next door, quickly gathering himself. With what Sunset could only guess was his best attempt at a terse frown, he stepped through and out of sight. Sunset chuckled again and quickly made her way up the spiral staircase.

_Well, whether it was luck or fate, I'm sure stuck with an interesting new friend..._


	8. Glory Days

"So, as you can see, we have fourteen confirmed 'Dalek' sightings spreading out across this area of Texas and New Mexico. They've been travelling alone, but it doesn't seem to have much impact on their deadliness."

Sunset and Penn were standing and staring at a large screen mounted to the wall, where Coulson had been going over a map with them for nearly half an hour. Each town on the map listed a count of casualties, injured and deceased. The fact that there were so many more of the latter than the former made Sunset's stomach turn. Even Penn seemed to have eschewed all of his excitement for a deep scowl as the magnitude of the destruction set in.

"Daleks are highly militaristic, they wouldn't conduct full-scale invasion in single numbers. The one Sunset and I encountered even identified itself as a scout." Penn mused. "They're still scouting out this world, assessing whether or not we could pose a threat-" he caught himself, then shook his head. "No, not a threat. How many resources and how much time we could cost to wipe out now, and whether we could be put to better use as a slave force."

"We think they're coming from a spatio-temporal anomaly right about... here." Fitz pointed to a point right at the center of the map. "We sent a drone through to the other side to try and gather data, but it was shot down after filming for only a few seconds."

The screen shifted to a bird's-eye view of West Texas, climbing up into the sky towards a shimmering barrier. As the camera moved up and through it, the entire picture transitioned to one of deep space. Far off in the distance, Sunset could count five spinning bronze saucers against the black void. After only a moment, however, a dalek flew into the picture, a flash of light came from its gun, and the picture was reduced to static.

Sunset had no idea what she had just been shown, but she knew that it wasn't good. She glanced over at Penn, hoping to get more information out of his reaction.

Sunset didn't know eyes OPENED that wide. She could see the whites all the way around his pupils, which were just as pale as his colorless face. Without a word, his eyes rolled back up into his head and he tipped backwards, falling to the floor with a loud thud.

"Penn!" Sunset rushed over to his side, checking him for injury from the fall. Luckily, the floor upstairs was carpeted, so it was unlikely he'd been seriously hurt by the impact.

"That bad, huh?" Coulson muttered, shutting off the screen with a wave of his hand. "Does he do that a lot?"

"I- I don't know, we just met earlier today!" Sunset gasped and slapped her palm over her mouth. She had been so worried about Penn, she'd spoken without thinking.

Fitz and Skye looked at one another anxiously, but Coulson's eyes just widened and locked on Sunset.

"You mean that the two of you beat one of these things after only knowing each other for a few HOURS?"

Sunset thought about trying to patch the leaked information with a lie, but she could practically feel Applejack's disapproval.

"Ten minutes, actually."

There was another pause.

"Well, that kind of teamwork is exactly what we're going to need if we want to survive this. Skye, you and Sunset help get him onto the couch, I'll have Simmons come take a look at him. I want to know the moment he wakes up!" Skye nodded obediently. "Fitz, you're going back to working on reverse-engineering that destroyed dalek down in the lab, I want a plan on how to beat these things by morning!"

"Yes, sir!" Fitz nodded before speed-walking his way out of the room back in the direction they came in from. Coulson obviously has his own places to be, leaving the briefing room in the opposite direction. Skye gave Sunset a sympathetic smile as she walked over and bent down to grab his ankles. Sunset returned with a tired smile of her own, reaching over and looping her arms under his shoulders. With joint grunts of effort, they both lifted him up into the air and walked him to a nearby couch.

"Not exactly the best first impression to make..." Skye muttered with a grin. "I've seen a lot of things, but I don't think I've ever seen someone faint like that at the first sign of trouble."

Sunset couldn't help but feel slightly offended. "Hey, take it a little easy on him, he's had a rough day! I think he's had more adventure today than in his whole life combined."

Skye raised her hands defensively. "I'm just kidding! I'm kinda the 'new girl' around here, too. Trust me, it's hard not to freeze up when you're staring the impossible in the face."

Before Sunset could respond, another girl was crouching beside her. She had a wide smile, long blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail, and a small bag. She reached inside, retrieving a small device.

"Hullo! Sorry, but would you mind moving?" she chirped, giving Sunset a gentle push out of the way before beginning to examine Penn. She ran the device over his forehead and watched a small display. She gave a relieved sigh.

"I might do a few more tests, but I would guess that he's fine, probably just overexerted himself." After a moment, she finally seemed to realize Sunset's presence, offering a wide smile and a friendly handshake. "Sorry, that was terribly impolite of me! Jemma Simmons, pleasure to meet you!"

"Simmons here is a genius with, like, six doctorates." Skye grinned. Simmons waved away the praise, but Sunset noticed that she didn't try to correct Skye.

Sunset took Jemma's hand and gave it a firm shake. "Nice to meet you, too, Jemma. I'm Sunset Shimmer."

"Sunset Shimmer? That's an... interesting name!"

Sunset blinked and glanced at Skye, who simply shrugged.

"It's pretty normal where I come from, actually..."

"Oh! Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you! It's a lovely name!" Jemma assured her. Sunset couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something about this girl reminded her of her friends: as if she were some kind of fusion of Fluttershy and Twilight. It made her feel safer. "Now then, I doubt your friend will be waking up soon on his own, it's already rather late. I would suggest you both get some rest while you can! The _rest_ of us, on the other hand..." she sighed, and for the first time Sunset noticed tired-looking bags beneath her eyes, "will keep working on reverse-engineering that THING they brought back for us..."

Sunset glanced at Penn. The color had returned to his face, and he now looked as if he was sleeping peacefully. She thought over just how much action and adventure had been crammed into a single day, then glanced at a clock on the wall. 10:30.

"I might not have any doctorates, but... maybe I could help?" Sunset rose up to her full height. "I don't know as much as Penn about daleks, but I DO know that their own guns are strong enough to take them down. If we could find a way to disconnect it from the main body-"

"Then we'd have an effective weapon to use against the rest! That's brilliant!" Simmons snapped her fingers and gleefully dashed for the door. "Thank you, Sunset Shimmer!"

"Wait! Maybe I can... help?" Sunset started to follow, but stopped as she felt Skye's hand on her shoulder.

"Trust me, it doesn't matter HOW smart you are, nobody can keep up with Fitz-Simmons when they're working together. Just that information is more than we could have asked for." Skye smiled and motioned to a set of doors on one side of the room. "We've got a spare bunk, why not follow your friend's example and get some sleep?"

Sunset glanced towards the doors, then back at Penn sleeping on the couch. She sighed and walked to another one of the chairs in the room, pulling off the cushions and setting them on the floor.

"I... don't want to leave him on his own. I'm _used_ to this kind of excitement, and even I feel like this is getting to be too much. Until I dropped into his life, he was just a pizza delivery guy! I feel kind of responsible, you know? Could I just borrow a blanket?"

Skye seemed surprised, but game her a knowing smile and disappeared into one of the bunk rooms, returning with a pillow and blanket for her.

"He's pretty lucky to have a friend like you, Sunset Shimmer."

Sunset smiled, laying down on the cushions and making herself comfortable under the blanket. Before she'd even realized it, she was already deep in the grasp of her dreams.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Sunset? Sunset, wake up..."

Sunset awoke to a firm hand shaking her shoulder. Opening her eyes, Sunset found herself staring up into Penn's face.

"Huh- wha- is it time to go?" she groaned, rubbing at her eyes as she began to sit up.

"Oh, no! Nonono! You're just moving up to the couch. you don't have to get up." Penn assured her as he motioned to the place he had been sleeping.

Sunset was sleepy, but she wasn't THAT sleepy. "Wait, then where are YOU going?"

Penn smiled and held up the black pouch he had taken from his car, giving it a playful shake.

"Testing a theory."

Sunset was wide awake, now. She sat up completely, shifting her glance back and forth between Penn and the pouch. A grin spread across her face and she was on her feet in seconds.

"There's no way I could sleep after that!"

"But you need to rest! You-" Penn caught himself and leaned in close to her to whisper into her ear. "You got blasted across who-knows-how-many universes today! Who KNOWS what kind of condition you could be in?"

Sunset took a moment to take inventory of her body. Two eyes, two arms, two legs... Nothing was hurting or missing, she was hardly even sore.

"I'm FINE, Penn! Now clue me in on that experiment of yours!"

Once again, Penn's eyes moved up and down examining her before he finally let out a defeated sigh.

"Fine. Let's head outside."

"Outside?"

"We're probably gonna need some space..." Penn winked before motioning for her to follow. Together, the two of them made their way back out the way that they had come, down into the cargo bay where the black humvee was parked beside a cherry-red sports car on a large exit ramp. Behind a pair of glass doors, Sunset could see Fitz and Simmons toiling away as fast as they could on the remains of the dalek she and Penn had destroyed earlier that day. Sunset considered herself rather skilled at reading lips, but the speed at which they were talking was beyond her ability to make out even a few words. She quickly turned and followed Penn down the ramp and outside.

"Oh! I know this area! We're halfway to Seagraves!" Penn grinned. "So much for the tinted windows making us lose track of our location, huh?"

Sunset rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything to spoil his fun. To her, the landscape around them was just shallow hills and dead grass.

"So, don't keep me in suspense! What's this all about?"

Penn grinned and unzipped the top of the pack, reaching inside and retrieving a set of small, thin objects. Sunset cringed as disappointment settled in.

"Cards?"

"Not just ANY cards!" Penn declared, pivoting on his heel and pointing the bundle of plastic-covered cards at her. "These cards are part of a _game_ created from a _show_ about summoning monsters and casting powerful magic! The cards act as a gateway between the human world and the world of spirits! A good duelist can overcome any obstacle with only his wits and the _heart of the cards!_ " He pointed the cards victoriously to the sky. After a few seconds of awkward silence, he returned to normal posture and cleared his throat.

"Of course, in THIS world, they're just children's trading cards. I was just thinking..." he dragged the tip of his toe through the dirt, obviously embarrassed about his earlier outburst. "You know, if Daleks and SHIELD and _you_ can all be real now, maybe these can be, too?"

Sunset couldn't resist smiling. His enthusiasm was almost... cute. It was definitely contagious.

"Well, I guess comparing if them now to BEFORE I broke the universe isn't a bad idea, right? I guess anything's possible at this point!"

Penn's face lit up at the encouragement and he began to eagerly rifle through the cards in his hand. After a few seconds, he finally settled on one. He confidently held it at arm's length, displaying it for the world to see.

"Alright! If this is really going to work, let's find out! I summon... _Ghostrick Doll!_ "

Sunset waited with baited breath. If this DID work, she couldn't wait to see what would happen. Both of them stood in complete silence for several seconds before Penn let loose a sigh of defeat and let his arm fall to his side.

"Well, I guess it WAS a stretch..." he muttered as he filed the cards back into the pack and fastened it back to his belt. Sunset stepped up beside him and gave him a gentle pat on the back.

"Hey, it was worth a shot, bud. I thought it might work, too! Sure would have liked to see it, summoning monsters out of trading cards sounds cool!"

Penn smiled and patted his hand against the pack. "Well, just having them nearby makes me feel safer anyway, whether they work or not."

Sunset could spot an opportunity to learn more about her new friend when it presented itself.

"Do they mean something to you? Something special?"

Penn smiled and reached inside, flipping through a few cards until he happened upon one that seemed to catch his attention, passing it into Sunset's hands.

It was a black card with a set of four stars at the top, a box full of text at the bottom, and a picture of what appeared to be a young girl at the center. She was wearing an adorable black dress with blue accents, a tiny top hat, and a pair of stockings with tiny shoes. She remembered Rarity calling the style "Gothic Lolita" in some of the mumbling she tended to do while she worked. The girl had a pair of wings with black-and-white feathers in a piano pattern and a matching halo over her head split evenly between black and white.

_Ghostrick Angel of Mischief_

_2 Level 4 monsters_

_You can also Xyz Summon this card by using a "Ghostrick" Xyz Monster you control as the Xyz Material, except "Ghostrick Angel of Mischief". (Xyz Materials attached to that monster also become Xyz Materials on this card.) When the number of Xyz Materials on this card becomes 10, you win the Duel. Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; add 1 "Ghostrick" Spell/Trap Card from your Deck to your hand. Once per turn: You can attach 1 "Ghostrick" card from your hand to this card as an Xyz Material._

_ATK: 2000 DEF: 2500_

"Well... the art is nice! It's really pretty!"

Penn chuckled, taking the card back out of her hand and slipping it into the pouch on his belt.

"You don't have to be nice about it, I know the text probably makes no sense if you aren't familiar with the game." He shrugged. "'Ghostrick Angel of Mischief' is a real mouthful, so I just call her 'Missy.' She's my favorite of the Ghostrick cards, gotten me through many a duel!" He gave the card a gentle pat before slipping it into the pack alongside the rest. "I was playing Yu-Gi-Oh before I moved to Texas. One of my closest friends taught me to play and gave me my first deck! By the time I came to Texas, I was obsessed with it..."

Penn's expression eased into a nostalgic smile as he strolled back to the cargo bay ramp and sat himself on the edge. Sunset silently followed him, sitting on the lower part just below him.

"I founded the school's game club around it, made a lot of my friends that way! I practically had the whole debate team coming, twenty-five members!" His eyes squinted after a moment. "Of course, the debate teacher got _jealous_ and rescheduled his practices to the same time as our club meetings... After that, there were only five of us."

Sunset couldn't hold back a giggle at the thought of a younger Penn and some generic teacher locked in dramatic rivalry.

"But those five turned into some of the best friends I ever had in high school. Tuesday afternoons were our time to just sit back and get away from all the people who liked to get their laughs at our expense. For three years, every Tuesday was just us, an empty classroom, and a _giant pile of cards..._ "

Sunset knew exactly what he was talking about. She had always loved hanging out with her friends in the band's practice room for the exact same reasons. It was like there was no one else in the world but them. When she was still hated for her days as a bully, it had been the one place she was safe from the rest of the students' judging gazes. Still, one detail struck a guilty nerve with her.

"You were bullied?"

Penn rolled his eyes and waved away her concerns. "It was much, much worse _before_ I came to Texas. I didn't even realize I was getting made fun of until at least a year in down here! It was pretty tame. It was still nice to have our own little corner of the world where didn't exist, though." His smile widened as happy memories overtook his melancholy. "We would always manage to get in at least one match every lunch period, too! Best of three duels!" He leaned in close to her. "My buddy would tell you that we were evenly matched, but my old deck and I were never defeated in the best of three!"

"Your old deck?"

"Oh! Yeah! The Ghostricks are actually pretty new compared to the cards in my old reliable deck! Here, take a look, it's-" he was cut off by the sound of footsteps coming down the ramp. Both of them looked up to see Agent Coulson.

"Good to see the two of you up and about, but I'm afraid there's no more time for reminiscing about the glory days. We've got a planet to save."

Sunset looked back at Penn, who simply chuckled and hopped down from his seat on the ramp.

"Well, guess there's not a lot of time for children's card games at the end of the world, huh?"

Sunset followed suit, and the two of them quickly followed Coulson up and back into the plane's cargo bay. She couldn't hold back a wide smile. She'd learned a lot about her new friend in just a few minutes. She hurried up to fall into line beside him.

"Psst, Penn?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think you could teach me to play that game? Once this Dalek stuff is all over?"

She watched as Penn's face lit up, practically rapturous in his disbelief. It was if those simple words had made his whole day.

"Y-yes! Definitely! I'd love to!"


	9. Smarter Than You Think

This time, everyone gathered down in the lab, which had a similar display to their meeting room upstairs. There were a couple of faces Sunset hadn't seen yet, apparently the two remaining members of Coulson's team. One was an older woman with shoulder-length black hair. Sunset could tell just from her posture that she was a woman not to be crossed. The other was a man with short-cut hair and traces of stubble. The moment that he had entered the room, a change seemed to come over Penn. He had instantly tensed up and made his way across the room to Sunset's side, placing himself between her and the stranger. The act hadn't gone unnoticed, the man and Penn sharing a glance at one another. Penn had simply nodded politely, but Sunset noted the absence of a smile on his face like when he had greeted the rest of the team. She made a mental note to ask him what kind of problem he had with the agent later.

"Now, to pick up our conversation from the point where it was interrupted..." Coulson glanced at Penn, who blushed and rubbed at the back of his neck.

"Sorry about that, I guess I was in worse shape than I thought I was when I got here. I'm fine now. No fainting, scout's honor!"

Coulson nodded and brought up a still frame from the video the day before: a perfect shot of the five ships floating in space. "Mister Penn, why exactly would this image make you faint?"

"Just 'Penn' is fine. Each of those are Dalek warships. Each one is capable of holding at least two THOUSAND Daleks. Five ships makes an invasion force of at least ten thousand."

"Ten thousand? That could decimate an entire country!" the male agent muttered.

"Try 'entire planet.'" Penn replied. "Daleks are killing machines. There could be only a handful of them and they wouldn't stop until every human on the planet was dead."

"Which is why we need to eliminate these scouts now." Coulson turned to address the duo of scientists. "Fitz-Simmons, tell me you've got SOMETHING that can help with that!"

"Yes!" both replied in unison.

"Simmons managed to separate the creature from the life-support systems. We're working on trying to find some kind of biological weakness we could use to bypass the outer shell and attack the creatures inside directly." Fitz cheerfully announced.

"And..." Simmons continued. "Fitz managed to not only separate the weapons system from the main body to make it handheld," she motioned to the table, where the gun portion was laid out with a long string of wires leading back to the body. "Thanks to the information Sunset Shimmer gave us, we know that reverse-engineering it is our best shot at creating a weapon that can penetrate their shielding. _And_ managed to access the data core!"

It was at this point Skye raised her hand. "Fitz and I have been working like crazy trying to decode it, but my best estimate would be that we need at least twenty-four hours to crack the encryption."

"The planet's at risk, we don't _have_ twenty-four hours!"

"Coulson, that's the best we can DO! We're already working ourselves to the bone, we didn't sleep _at all_ last night!"

Sunset watched Penn press the tips of his fingers together and tap them against his forehead. "Wait... wait wait waitwaitwait..."

"Well, forget the encryption, we need to focus on weapons. Fitz, how long until a working prototype?"

"I'm missing something..." Penn whispered, tapping harder at his head. "Something important, _something_..."

"If we stop working on the decryption? Four, maybe five hours?" Fitz strolled over to the place where the gun was laying.

"That's a question, not an answer, Fitz. Every second we don't beat these things is another second people are dying out there!"

"What if we take this one gun and wipe out the scouts? Would that buy us time?" the male agent spoke up, picking the gun off the table and examining it closely.

"Or they might send a retaliatory force," The older woman growled. "More Daleks, greater violence. If they're a militaristic race, they'll respond to a show of force in kind."

Penn, meanwhile, was beginning to groan with exertion, eyes screwed shut as he slammed the base of his palm against his forehead. "Come on! I _know_ I'm forgetting something!"

Everyone in the room was beginning to stare at him, and Sunset reached out to tap him on the shoulder.

"Penn? You okay?"

The moment she touched him, his eyes flew open wide and he slammed both hands on the table.

"THE DATA CORE!"

He glanced around the room, as if expecting everyone to instantly understand what he was talking about. Even Sunset had to admit that it was a mystery to her, and the way everyone was exchanging worried glances told her that she wasn't the only one. The only one keeping his eyes fixed on Penn was Coulson.

"Yes? What about it? I'm sure it's full of useful data, are you saying it has something we can use to beat these things faster?"

Penn turned away from the table, clasping his hands together a pointing his fingers ahead.

"Just... just let me talk through this. The Dalek database is the single most extensive wealth of data in the whole universe, possibly even more so than the Time Lords! They're a hivemind of data, everything observed by every Dalek going and feeding into their store of information." He spun on his heel, pointing the fingers of each hand at Skye and Fitz. "They have one of the most advanced securities known, and you two think you could crack it in a DAY?"

"Definitely!"

"I-I think so..."

Penn grinned and punched the air. "GREAT! I knew you were clever, but that's just GENIUS!" He spun back to face Coulson, leaning out over the table on both hands. "I've got an idea. It's crazy, but if it works the whole planet will be safe from the Daleks, possibly for good!"

Sunset thought she saw the beginnings of a smile tugging at Coulson's lips as he asked the question everyone was thinking.

"Well? What is it?"

Penn grinned and walked to the back of the room, pacing back and forth.

"Okay, so, in the past, a truly genius hacker proved herself able to exploit a connection to the Dalek database, she went in and deleted all files on a single individual, one that the daleks had been hunting for _millenia,_ and the Daleks just... forgot him! Their memories of him had been wiped completely clean, even the ones that had just seen him less than a day before!" The pace of his pacing increased every time he changed direction. "If someone IS smart enough to crack their system and get inside, they could theoretically make the Daleks forget ANYTHING!"

"Like a planet?"

"YES! Imagine if we did that for a whole PLANET!" Penn continued his pacing, now power-walking from one side of the room to the other in only a couple seconds. "But you can't just delete the information, right? All that will happen is that they'll get to have the joy of discovering Earth all over again! Soooo..." he turned back to face the group, waiting for someone to finish the train of thought.

"If we can delete things, then... that means we can replace them, too, right? Put in our own data?" Fitz asked. Penn grinned and pointed a finger-gun at Fitz with a gleeful fake firing noise.

"KA-POW! One hundred points to Ravenclaw! SO, we'll have to split into two- no, _three_ teams! Team one, Techies! Fitz and Skye, you two need to crack that data core and write a program that'll wipe Earth out of their memories and replace it with something REALLY unappealing! Meanwhile, team two, the specialists..." he took a moment to gesture to the two agents Sunset hadn't been introduced to, "are going to have to wipe out the scouts in a swift and decisive manner! If they're here at the same time we change the memories and see something different, all of this could be for nothing! Finally, team three is going to have to find a way to deliver the altered data core to a place where it could be connected to the main database..." he strode his way up to the front of the room, staring intently at the picture of the flying saucers. "Most likely.. there. I should probably be on that team, so..."

There was a brief moment of silence as the wind seemed to fall out of Penn's sails. He seemed to deflate slightly as his manic moment came to an end and he sheepishly looked at the floor, turning to face Coulson.

"O-or, at least, that's how I would do it, sir. Sorry, I wasn't trying to order your team around..."

 _For a minute, it was like he was a completely different person!_ Sunset was slightly in awe at the transformation. For a moment, Penn had been practically oozing confidence, held himself with a presence of a man completely in control. And then all at once it was gone and he had returned to his alter-identity as a mild-mannered pizza guy.

Coulson patted Penn's shoulder. "It's a good plan, I can overlook the faux pas." He smiled and poked a finger into Penn's chest. "That enthusiasm's good, hold on to that." He sighed, then turned to the rest of the team.

"Skye, get working on cracking that encryption. Fitz, finish making that gun mobile!" Both of them nodded, Fitz rushing to the table with the Dalek's gun and Skye rushing out of the room. "Ward, Mae, I need both of you to get ready to suit up. The moment that gun is operational, you're going out and wiping out the scouts we've been tracking. _Discretely._ " The other two agents nodded, both walking out of the room together. Finally, his gaze turned to Sunset and he drew Penn's attention with a pat on his shoulder.

"Miss Shimmer, Penn, may I speak with you two for a moment in my office?" He calmly strode his his way out of the room. Penn shot Sunset a nervous glance and shrugged. She rolled her eyes and simply fell into line behind him.

"That... was amazing! How much of that did you make up as you went along?"

Penn sheepishly glanced back at her.

"Well, I DID say I needed to talk my way through it... Fake it 'till you make it, you know?"

Sunset could only smile and shake her head. That was the kind of excuse she was used to hearing from Rainbow Dash. Coulson led them through the upper level towards the front of the plane. Finally, they all walked into a small room. It was clearly an office, with a large desk and shelves lined with what looked like antique spy devices and models of every kind. It was like she was standing in a museum devoted to the history of the organization she was working with. Coulson took a seat behind his desk, interlacing his fingers and letting out a long sigh. He turned a tired-looking glare on Penn.

" _What_ were you thinking? What you suggested about going out onto that alien ship is _insane!_ There's NO WAY I can allow civilians to put themselves in the line of fire like that! It goes against every rule and regulation SHIELD has!"

Sunset watched Penn shrink back and away in the face of Coulson's reproach. A shadow of shame fell over him as his eyes shot down to the floor. Sunset felt indignation well up in her chest.

"Hey, he was just saying what makes sense!" Sunset stepped forward. "And he just gave you a plan to save the world!"

"And I AM grateful for that! But suggesting the idea of putting _himself_ on the Dalek ship-"

" _Ourselves._ " Sunset folded her arms over her chest. Penn's head snapped up, eyes wide with surprise. Sunset smiled and rolled her eyes. "You didn't think I'd let you go alone, did you?"

" _Absolutely not._ " Coulson declared. Sunset turned back to the government agent, narrowing her eyes.

"Sir, with all respect, I _know_ how to size someone up at a glance. The only two people on your team who are left are Simmons and you, and Jemma wouldn't last five minutes in the middle of a ship full of crazy killer robots! You _have_ to be here to coordinate your team! You are out of hands!" She moved up to the desk, leaning in to look Coulson in the eye. "Penn and I were as close to that monster you have downstairs as I am to you _right now._ And we _walked away._ We aren't just your only choice, we're your _best_ choice." Coulson didn't flinch at her, still as a statue as he stared right back into her piercing gaze.

"Unacceptable."

"You don't have a choice."

There was a moment of tense silence. It felt like Sunset and Coulson were locked in some kind of battle of will, caught in a stalemate as they waited to see which one of them would flinch first. Coulson's eyes narrowed.

"Get out of my office."

Sunset nodded.

"You'll know where to find us... _sir._ " Sunset turned back to Penn, who had lost all color in his face, took hold of his hand, and led him out of the room. She tugged Penn all the way back to the living quarters where he finally moved under his own power to throw himself onto the couch.

"Y-y-y-you just- You JUST-"

Sunset rolled her eyes.

"Too much is on the line for us to follow every rule in the book, Penn, and I can already tell you're too busy hero-worshiping this guy to stand up to him when he's wrong!"

"You can't volunteer to go on that ship! It's crazy! It's insane!" Penn leaned forward and grabbed her by the shoulders. "A Dalek ship is practically certain death! Their lasers are so powerful they'll scramble your organs like eggs!"

Sunset folded her arms and narrowed her gaze.

"YOU volunteered to go, and you expect me to just let you go in alone?"

"I vo- I _volunteered?_ I- I did, didn't I?" Penn held his palm up to his forehead and propped his elbow on his knee. "I think I'm going to faint again..."

Sunset reached up and pulled his hand away from his head, clasping it in both of hers.

"Hey. Penn. Keep it together, buddy. We're going to make it through this, okay? Where was that confidence you had when you were making this plan? It's a good plan!"

In his eyes, Sunset saw uncertainty and fear, worry. She didn't need to be a mind reader to know that he was terrified. She reached over and unzipped the pouch at his side and reached inside, grabbing the card from the top.

"Hey, remember what you said? A good duelist can overcome any challenge with his wits and the 'heart of his cards,' right? Well, your cards are right here! They're not going anywhere!" Slowly turned over the card in his hand, revealing the card he'd been showing off to her earlier: Ghostrick Angel of Mischief. "And I'm not going anywhere, either."

Penn took a long, deep breath, and Sunset felt his grip on her hand tighten. Finally, he let go of his breath and her hand at the same time.

"Okay. Right. It'll be fine. Everything is going to be fine..." he whispered, rising out of the chair on shaky legs. "W-why don't we go find something to eat?"

Sunset smiled, glad that her encouragement had gotten through to him.

"Sounds good to me, buddy."


	10. Stronger Than You Seem

"Hey. Thought you could use this." Coulson placed a hot cup of coffee on the table beside Skye.

"Oh, thank you SO much!" she sighed and grabbed the mug with both hands, closing her eyes as she took a long drink.

Coulson took a seat beside her, cradling a cup of his own.

"Hm? Okay, Coulson... I know why _I_ have bags under my eyes, I'm learning alien programming on the fly here. What's bugging you?"

"There's something that's eating at me. _How_ did that 'Penn' guy know Ward and May were our specialists? In fact, he knew exactly what every person on our team was capable of and where they'd fit best! I couldn't argue with him because that plan is exactly how I would have divided everyone up, myself!"

"Including sending him and Sunset onto the alien spaceship?"

Coulson sighed. Skye's outsider opinion always had a way of getting to the heart of the matter.

"They're _civilians,_ Skye! That mission is suicide!"

"Well, I was a civilian too, remember? And, whether you liked it or not, I think I've become a valuable member of this team!" Skye took another long sip of her coffee. "Mmm... Coulson, what are the other options?"

That was a question Coulson had been asking himself repeatedly.

"Ward's skills include infiltration, so do May's. Either one of them could go onto the ship, be in and out in a matter of hours, and the other could be out destroying the rest of the Dalek scouts."

Skye nodded. "You're not wrong, but neither of them know as much about these things as Penn. And if Sunset isn't going to even go to a different room to sleep, she's definitely not going to let him go onto the Dalek warship without her by his side. A three-person team-"

"Exponentially increases their chances of detection. I know." Coulson finished the sentence. "Team three _needs_ Penn, and he and Sunset are obviously inseparable..."

"Not to mention, if you replaced May with Simmons, are you sure they'd be able to get every single scout wiped out in time? She's surprisingly good under pressure, but I wouldn't exactly take her for a sharpshooter with an alien laser gun. Taking out the scouts quickly is just as important as the away team's mission."

Coulson couldn't help but balk slightly.

"What makes you think I wouldn't put Ward on the away team?"

Skye scoffed as she began typing away at her computer again.

"Are you kidding? Did you SEE the way Penn was looking at him? I don't know what's going on there, but I'm willing to bet that one of them thought there was a _little_ too much testosterone in the room..."

Coulson blinked, surprised at Skye's assumption. He hadn't noticed anything between Agent Ward and the stranger, let alone the tension she was talking about.

"What can I do, Skye? The team here AND the team going out there are both crucial! You and Fitz are going to be totally burned out by the time you've cracked the codex, Simmons isn't suited to either task, and our only expert on these things is certain to drag another innocent civilian in with him! I've got no good options!" Coulson sighed and held a palm to his forehead. "We're supposed to _protect_ civilians, not drag them into danger! At times like this, I wonder what Director Fury would do..."

Skye sighed, stopping her typing for a moment to turn and face him.

"I don't know about this 'Director Fury' guy, but I know _Agent Philip Coulson_ knows who to trust. You'll make the best choice."

Coulson couldn't resist a smile, patting Skye on the shoulder as he rose back to his feet.

"Thank you, Skye. I think that's just what I needed to hear."

"Great! I'll get back to trying to get into this Dalek data core..." Skye sighed with frustration. "It's like the programming is adapting to everything I do, like it's actively FIGHTING me!"

"Think you can do it?"

Skye grinned.

"It might require calling in a few favors from my old Rising Tide contacts, but I've never met a code I couldn't beat, yet!"

"Well, pick up the pace, would you? The more time I have to think about what I'm about to do, the more likely I am to back out of it." Coulson delivered the line with a grin, as if he were joking, but there was more than a nugget of truth to the statement. He didn't like where this plan was leading one bit, but it had to be done.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunset opened the passenger-side door of the humvee and hopped inside. Penn was waiting inside, reclined casually back in the driver's seat. His posture didn't fool Sunset, though. She could see his foot anxiously tapping away against the wall of the car, to the point that an eye unfamiliar with anxiety might have mistaken it for out-of-control shaking. Luckily, years of being friends with Fluttershy had gifted her with a discerning eye for nervous tics.

"So... any requests?" He held up his phone and gave it a small shake. "They won't trust me with the keys and an aux cable, so we're stuck with cell phone speakers."

Sunset smiled and shrugged.

"Anything is fine with me. Why not play me one of your favorites?"

Penn paused for a moment, then typed furiously into the phone for a few seconds. A moment later, a familiar guitar began to play.

_"Once... upon a time,_

_you came into my world and made the stars align!"_

A wave of emotion swept over Sunset as Applejack's voice rang through the car. Before she was even aware enough to stop it or suppress it, tears began to stream down her face.

_"Now I can see the signs!_

_You pick me up when I get down so I can shine!"_

Rarity's crooning sent another shudder through Sunset's body, too much for her to take. She buried her face in her hands as the wall holding back her emotions crumbled to dust and she began to sob uncontrollably.

 _"Shine like rainboooooows! Shine like-"_ the music was cut off suddenly and Sunset felt a firm hand on her shoulder.

"Sunset! I-I'm sorry! I just thought you might-" Sunset shook her head, cutting Penn's excuses off as another sob burst out. She couldn't stop the words that came after it any more than she could stop the tears from flowing.

"It's my fault! It's _all_ my fault! And- and now I don't know if I'll ever SEE them again! I- I thought I'd made my peace with all of us going our separate ways, but _not like this!_ Twi-Twilight had a full ride to the best college in the _country!_ Rarity got an internship in Manehatten, Rainbow was guaranteed anything she could ask for! And I made a _stupid_ mistake and took it ALL away from them! It's all my fault! It's all my fault... It's-"

The door beside her opened. She glanced over and saw Penn standing there. She hadn't even noticed him leave the car. He reached out and took hold of her hand, pulling her down and out of the seat.

Sunset had gotten plenty of hugs since she'd become one of the "good guys," the Rainbooms were pretty fond of them. She'd always thought Pinkie gave the best hugs, with Applejack coming in at a close second. Somehow, in that moment, she found herself wrapped up in some kind of super-hug. It was as if someone had crammed one of Princess Celestia's wing-hugs, her favorite blanket fresh out of the dryer, and a healthy dose of Equestrian magic into an iron vice and clamped it shut around her. The way he was gripping her, Sunset wondered if Penn was afraid she'd disappear just like the rest of her friends had. Everything else became muted, like an aura had settled around them that blocked out the rest of the world.

When her breathing had slowed and come back under her control, Penn finally let go enough to hold her at arm's length. Just like in the planning room, Sunset couldn't see a single trace of anxiety or hesitation.

"Sunset Shimmer, I _swear_ to you, as your _friend,_ we will find them. I will make certain that you find every single one of your friends, and that you all make it home safe and sound. I _promise._ "

Sunset was glad that her complexion tended to hide a blush well.

"You give _really_ good hugs."

Immediately, Penn's face shifted to surprise, and he couldn't seem to let go of her fast enough. The confidence was once again gone as quickly as it had come.

"Sorry, heh... I was always that one friend everyone would go to with their problems, and I've always been a hugger... That was mostly instinct. Was it too much?"

Sunset wiped away the remains of her tears and shook her head.

"No, it was... just what I needed."

Her answer sent a wave of relief washing over Penn's face, and he nodded back to the humvee. In a matter of seconds, the two of them were back in their seats, and Penn was typing away on his phone again.

"Okay, how about this: the words are all gibberish, but it's the theme to one of my favorite characters! In a world that seems like it's cold and cruel, she chooses to be kind and full of faith! It's called ['Credens Justitam!'](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqQ3hP_q7Ns) It means-"

"Believe In Justice?"

Penn gave her a smile so bright, it nearly blinded her. Sunset couldn't help but smile in return and lean back into her seat.

"Sure. Why not?"

From the tiny cellphone speakers came the sounds of a full choir and orchestra, filling the space of the car until Sunset felt fully immersed. Penn was right about the lyrics being gibberish, but the emotion of the piece shone through clear as day. Comfort and hope wrapped around Sunset and washed over her. The panic of seconds before felt like a distant memory.

"Yuki Kajiura really is a musical master..." Penn whispered, barely audible over the music.

Sunset had to agree.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Anything new?" Coulson asked.

"Well, as near as I can tell, 'Penn' has no kind of specialized training, let alone being an expert in xenobiology." Agent Ward shrugged and let out a long sigh of frustration. "Real name: Elijah Bakersfield. Delivered pizza before the world went crazy. Born in Conneticut, spent his childhood in Maine, moved to Texas eight years ago. Flunked out of college in Utah about two years ago. Been on medications for depression and anxiety, but nothing out of the ordinary. This guy is _clean,_ Coulson, not even a parking ticket! There's no reason to trust him, but also no reason NOT to trust him!" Ward spun in his chair to face his commanding officer. "I have no idea how he knows so much about these aliens, but he didn't learn it in school or from any organization we have on record."

"What about 'Sunset Shimmer?'" Coulson still couldn't take the name seriously. It sounded like a name a 5-year-old girl would come up with for her pet pony.

Ward shrugged. "Ran her photo through every database SHIELD has, nothing. She's a ghost, as if she didn't exist until that security camera at the hardware store caught her on film yesterday!"

Coulson had once said that Skye's ability to have wiped her digital existence from the face of the planet was intriguing. The novelty of not knowing things was very quickly wearing off.

"May? What are they doing now?"

Agent May removed her headphones and gave Coulson a very fed-up expression.

"I think they both fell asleep in the humvee. That or they're just listening to music. Sunset started to have some kind of meltdown, but Penn defused it."

Coulson had to admit that he was mildly surprised. In his office, Sunset had shown a level of nerve that could have stared down Romanov, and Penn had seemed too timid to even speak out loud if someone else was talking.

_I guess everyone's different when they think nobody's watching..._

"Can I stop watching them, now? I've got better things to do, like make sure Zephyr One is ready for an emergency takeoff if one of those THINGS tracks us down."

Coulson knew better than to push May when they were all under so much pressure. He gave her a quick nod, and she eagerly left the room.

"Sir, with all due respect, may I ask you something about this plan?" Ward asked, setting aside the laptop he was working off of.

"Granted."

"The away team is going to be striking deep into the heart of enemy territory. Agent May and I are both specialists, more than suited to the job! We have the skills, why not send one of US?"

Coulson sighed.

"Because the scouts have spread too far apart. We need to deal with them all quickly, before they can coordinate a counterattack. You and Agent May will have to split up and each take on six or more in a matter of a couple hours at the _same time_ the away team is infiltrating. You're the only agents I can count on to be that efficient AND to take these things out in a head-on fight by yourselves. Our new friends already proved that they have a knack for _not_ getting killed by daleks, but Penn wasn't lying: watch the footage from the store, killing that thing WAS a matter of luck. We need more than luck to destroy the scouts."

Ward sighed again, and Coulson knew that he'd already contemplated and dismissed every thought going through Ward's head while he was alone in his office.

"I don't like it, sir. Putting them into the line of fire. It's against every SHIELD protocol, and even our mission as an organization altogether! We're supposed to _protect_ the innocent, not send them into the line of fire!"

Coulson took a deep breath.

"You're right. SHIELD agents keep people safe. We protect the world." He turned and quickly made his way out the door. "Thank you, Agent Ward! You just helped me make up my mind about something!"

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunset could feel herself drifting between awake and asleep. Penn had decided not to stop with "Credens Justitam," going on to play the entire soundtrack to the show it had come from, something about "magical girls." She hadn't really been listening too closely by that point.

A soft knocking came from the window, followed a second later by the door opening on its own.

"Hey, you two still alive in here?" Agent Coulson asked.

Sunset smiled and rubbed at her eyes. "Sorry, must have lost track of time..."

"Do you need the car for something?" Penn asked. Sunset watched him open the door and roll himself out of his seat.

"Actually, I need to talk to the two of you about something important." Coulson stepped aside and motioned for Sunset to get out. She quickly obliged, her sluggishness wearing off in a matter of seconds. Penn quickly made his way around the car to join them, taking up a position at Sunset's side.

"Now, about this mission: are you two certain that you can do it? If you're having doubts, we can find another way."

Sunset's mind flashed back to the moments after their last meeting with Coulson and Penn's ensuing breakdown. She glanced over at her friend, trying to gauge whether his condition had improved. He was staring right back at her, locking eyes. Sunset felt a solidarity between them, a solid base from which friendship had been built. Finally, Penn turned back to face Coulson with a shake of his head.

"Sir, of course I have doubts, it's sneaking onto a ship full of killer aliens! But it's what needs to be done, right? So we'll do it."

Sunset watched Coulson's expression settle into a melancholy smile.

"Spoken like a true agent. Unfortunately, you two are NOT agents, and SHIELD cannot in good conscience put civilians in harm's way like this." He sighed and reached into the pocket of his suit. Penn's eyes widened, and Sunset felt herself begin to slip into a defensive position. A moment later, however, Coulson produced two items from his pocket. They looked like leather wallets, and Sunset heard Penn gasp in surprise as he obviously recognized them.

"No way... NO WAY!"

Coulson ignored Penn's excitement.

"When I first joined SHIELD, Director Fury told me that a person can do anything when they realize they're a part of something bigger. Over all these years, he's only been proven right time and time again. So, for the sake of this mission, I am fully deputizing the two of you as temporary agents." He handed each of them one of the leather items. Sunset flipped it open to reveal a large circular badge with the SHIELD emblem and an ID that looked much like her driver's license, including a photo and her physical details.

Shimmer, Sunset. Level 4  
 _Title: Specialist_

"Specialist?"

"Well, there wasn't really a title for 'Alien Mothership Infiltrator.'" Coulson shrugged. He gave Sunset a firm handshake, followed soon after by Penn. "Both of you, welcome to SHIELD."

Penn eagerly held up his hand in a passionate salute. "We won't let you down, sir!"

"Wrong hand, Penn. But again, I like the enthusiasm!"

Penn instantly switched hands, and Sunset held back a giggle at the awkward antics.

"You two are going to have a mission debriefing tonight and leave first thing in the morning, Skye and Fitz should have the data core cracked by then."

There was something that had been bothering Sunset up until now, and this felt like the time to ask it.

"Mister Coulson, sir? Can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead, Sunset."

"Well, isn't it just space on the other side of that rift? How are we going to survive on the other side?"

Coulson smiled.

"Well, Fitz-Simmons didn't JUST separate the weapon from that Dalek in the lab! Come on, I think you'll like this." He nodded towards the back of the plane and out the cargo hold. Together, the three of them walked outside and around to the front of the plane.

"We managed to extract the hoverskirt, as well! We've attached it to one of our environmentally sealed cargo containers and..."

As they reached the front of the plane, just beyond the nose, Sunset could see a large rectangular container sitting on the ground. Bits and pieces of the bronze Dalek armor were scattered around the bottom, messily welded on in places and connected by a mess of wires she knew would have haunted Twilight's nightmares.

"Instant spaceship. It's not much, but it should get you there and back again under the radar!"

Sunset suddenly felt much less confident about placing her life in the hands of SHIELD. Penn, meanwhile, immediately ran up and began to examine it, gleefully clapping his hands together.

"Ha HA! Coulson, this is GENIUS! Using Dalek parts means that we'll be recognized and not blown out of the sky!" He pointed back at Coulson with a sly grin. "It's an older code, sir, but it checks out!"

Coulson's face lit up with delight.

"Episode 6? You're a fan?"

"Who isn't?" Penn replied, slapping the side of the container and leaning against it. "Who can ever forget 'Return of the Jedi?'"

"One of the greats!" Coulson agreed.

Penn leaned forward. "Okay, I have a question: did you like that they re-used the plot of destroying another death star? Or did that seem kind of lazy after A New Hope?"

"Not at all! The fact it was only half-built made a really chilling image, and the fact it was fully operational? _Huge_ twist at the time! I loved it! It's what got me interested in things like aliens and the supernatural, to begin with!"

Sunset had no idea what they were talking about, but it reminded her of Rainbow Dash and Twilight's conversations about Daring Do novels: something she'd long ago decided to give up trying to interpret.

"I guess that answers my question... Thank you, Agent Coulson." she tried to hide the trepidation in her voice. This transport did NOT inspire a lot of trust. Coulson still seemed to pick up on her hesitation, walking over and placing a firm hand on her shoulder.

"I know it doesn't look like much, but I'd trust Fitz and Simmons with my life, and they say it'll hold. I would _never_ place the lives of one of my agents in unnecessary danger, Sunset. You'll be safe inside, I promise."

Sunset nodded, her fears somewhat eased. Coulson seemed earnest, and there was something about him that made Sunset feel he was trustworthy.

"OH MY GOSH!" Penn practically screamed, drawing all attention back to him.

"We're going after the Daleks... _in a flying box!_ Do you have any idea how HILARIOUS this is?"

This time Coulson seemed to be out of the loop, as well. He looked to Sunset, who simply shrugged. She didn't get the joke, either. Being the only one to get the joke didn't dampen Penn's enthusiasm, doubling over with laughter.

"C-Coulson, sir! P-please, I'm begging you! Can we- Can we paint it BLUE?"

Coulson leaned down, half-whispering to Sunset.

"Is... he okay? I think the stress might have gone to his head..."

Sunset rolled her eyes. "I used to have a friend who said a lot of things that didn't make sense. When we stopped questioning her all the time, she wound up being one of the most reliable friends I've ever had. I'd say... just roll with it."

Coulson pondered her advice for a moment, then shrugged.

"No painting it! I'm expecting it to come back to us intact, with both of you on board!"

Penn's laughter finally petered out, only leaving a gigantic smile on his face instead as he rose into a proper salute.

"Yes, sir! Understood..."

Coulson nodded and turned back the way they'd come.

"Well, the rest of the day is your own. I recommend you familiarize yourself with the controls, then get plenty of rest for tomorrow! And that's an order, _agents!_ "

Sunset took her turn to salute as Coulson walked away. The moment he was out of sight, she rushed over to Penn.

"WHAT was all that about?"

"S-sorry..." Penn said, hardly sounding sorry at all as he wiped a tear of laughter from his face. "It's just that the arch-enemy of the Daleks... his ship is a blue box, almost the same size as this one! It's either a sign from God or the funniest coincidence in the history of the universe!"

Sunset rolled her eyes. "I'll go with 'coincidence.'"

Penn shrugged, and Sunset noticed his expression quickly turn dower.

"Hey, Sunset... I feel like I owe you an apology. For playing that song earlier. It was stupid of me to think that was a good idea, and it just wound up hurting you... I should have thought more about it. So... I'm sorry." He turned his eyes down to the ground and shuffled his feet.

Sunset was surprised. She'd thought that the whole ordeal was behind them.

"Penn, you were just trying to make me feel better! Why would I be mad about that?" She walked over and stood beside him, leaning against the makeshift spaceship side by side. "Besides, I owe you an apology, too. Ever since I got here, I've been trying to only think about what's happening in the moment so I wouldn't think about what's happened to my friends... But when I heard their voices, everything I'd been bottling up all came out at once. I'm usually pretty calm, you know? But I just fell apart... I'm sorry you had to see that."

"Sunset, you've got every reason to be upset! You can't apologize for that!"

Sunset pounded her fist against the wall. "Then I'm just sorry you had to SEE it! I don't get hysterical, I get things done! I've never... I've never just panicked like that!"

Penn shrugged off the statement.

"It happens to the best of us, Sunset. In your position, I don't even know what I'd do other than break down into a panic attack to end all panic attacks!"

Sunset sighed. "Well, thank you... Thanks for helping me get control."

"Hey, don't forget you were the one who calmed me down enough to be willing to go on this crazy adventure! I was freaking out, too!" He gently patted the pack of cards on his waist. "If we can both keep each other's heads on straight, we might stand a chance of surviving this."

Sunset smiled and shoved her elbow into his ribs.

"Hey! You promised you'd get me and my friends home safe and sound! That starts with _definitely_ surviving the Daleks!"

The two of them both began to giggle to themselves.

"Sunset, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship!"


	11. Braver Than You Believe

"So, here's the plan."

Sunset was still half-asleep and groggy. It was five minutes before five in the morning, and she and Penn had been up late "training" with their flying box and learning to fly it without throwing themselves from wall to wall. Penn didn't look to be faring much better, barely able to keep his eyes open. Once again, the agents of SHIELD had gathered in the lab. Skye and Fitz both looked nearly dead on their feet, but there was a content smile on Skye's face.

"Skye and Fitz managed to crack the encryptions and firewalls on the data core last night. Not only did they make the necessary modifications, but they got us a little something extra." Coulson waved his hand to reveal a cross-section of a dalek ship. "A map!"

"The idea is-" Fitz stepped forward, only to stop and have to stifle a yawn. "The best point of attack would be the repair bay, located here." He pointed to a medium-sized room at the bottom of the ship. "All you would have to do is replace the data core in an existing Dalek with our modified version and Skye's programming will do the rest."

"Not only are these coordinates going to become the new home of a _nasty_ black hole, I've added a few other little viruses that should turn their systems inside out..." Skye was trying to sounds smug, but her tired monotone made her sound like the most miserable person in the room.

"The mission is going to be fast and simple. You get in, swap the data core in the repair center, and get out. Shouldn't take more than an hour and you'll both be back home safe and sound, got it?" Coulson looked between Sunset and Penn. Penn gave a sluggish salute, and Sunset simply nodded.

"Meanwhile, Agent Ward and I will be taking Fitz-Simmons and going after the scouts at the same time," the older woman (who Sunset now knew was Agent May) stated. "Once we've taken out one, we'll disconnect its weapon and add it to our own, then split into two teams. Then four. The scouting party will be destroyed before they know what hit them, and Skye's virus will discourage them from sending any more."

Coulson nodded in agreement. "I'll be coordinating from here. If any team runs into trouble, I'll inform the rest and adjust plans accordingly." He turned his attention on Sunset and Penn, pointing at each of them. "You two: if I say abort, you ABORT, got it? Trust me, we'll find another way, I don't want to lose any more casualties to these monsters."

"Won't have to tell me twice..." Penn mumbled. A second later, his eyes shot open wide. "Uhm... Did I just say that out loud?"

Sunset rolled her eyes. "I think what he MEANS to say is that we'll follow orders to the letter, sir. No need to worry." She offered a quick salute. This seemed to satisfy Coulson, who reached down and produced a small plastic case. Inside were a pair of small earplugs. Penn reached out and took one, placing it into his ear without hesitation. Sunset quickly mimicked him. She could guess that they were some kind of communicators.

"Alright, everyone! Time to save the world..." he took a quick glance around the room, before letting out a frustrated sigh.

"And seriously, get some coffee, or something."

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Alright, listen closely. You want to bear thirty-two-point-three degrees north-by-northwest of here for five miles, the temporal-spatial rift is approximately one hundred meters off the ground." Fitz declared, pointing out into the brown landscape. "We've put a GPS into the 'ship' to get you there. Once it loses signal, there'll be a second system that will record your movement through three-dimensional space. When you're ready to extract, hit the red button, it'll automatically take you back along the same path through space and through the rift. Understand?"

"Sounds simple enough... When we want to come back, just hit the big red button!" Penn declared.

"Are you sure you'll be okay, Fitz? You're pretty tired already, and now you're going out to fight more Daleks here on Earth!" Sunset asked. Fitz shook his head.

"This isn't my first all-nighter. Exam week at the academy, I didn't sleep for three days straight without even realizing it! I'll be fine. Now don't worry about us back here, we'll do our part." Fitz reached into the pocket of his coat, producing a small, bronze, egg-shaped item. "This is the data core. Find one in the repair bay, swap it with this one, and our virus will do the rest. Good luck, both of you." Fitz gave her a pat on the shoulder before turning and running back to the back of the plane. Sunset watched him and the rest of the agents were pile into the humvee before driving out of sight. Penn tapped a panel on the side of the storage container, opening the doors.

"Ready, Sunset?"

Sunset grinned and ran inside, grabbing the hastily-installed joystick that served as the controls.

"I should be asking you the same thing! At least I was _awake_ during the debriefing!"

Penn rolled his eyes and tossed aside the empty energy drink in his hand.

"I'm good! In that case... let's go save the world!"

Sunset grinned and flicked a switch, activating the hoverskirt and lifting the container into the air. With a gentle push of the joystick, the ground fell away from beneath them and they were on their way.

"Ever been to outer space before?" Penn asked, staring out the window. After a few seconds he backed away and made a concerted effort to stare at the walls and floor around them.

"Nope. You?"

"Do daydreams count?"

Sunset chuckled. A quick glance at the GPS showed they were off-course. A small adjustment later, they were back on course. "Guess that makes this a new experience for both of us?"

Penn nodded, staring wide-eyed out the front window. Sunset noticed a small tremor in his hands.

"Is now a bad time to mention I'm scared of heights? And dying in the cold vacuum of space? In all of the excitement, I kinda forgot."

"Oh! That's actually a common misconception! Vacuum can't have a temperature! What's cold are the extremely thin gases spread throughout, which are usually only about three degrees above absolute zero, and..." Sunset glanced over to see Penn keeping a death grip on the handles fixed to the walls, eyes wide and face pale. "And I'm not really helping, am I?" Penn shook his head.

"Well, let's put it this way: I am VERY good at this. That's why we were up until almost midnight last night! I'm not going to fly us into anything. We'll make it there safely. Once we do, _you're_ the one _I'm_ counting on to keep us safe! Each of us relies on the other, it's fair!" A quick glance at the GPS showed that they were almost on top of their target. Sunset looked up at the sky, trying to spot the rift.

She nearly missed it, at first. It was a shimmer in the air, like the heat coming off of a road on a broiling summer day. She could _feel_ the energy coming off of it like the sun on her face, bypassing walls and barriers to tingle directly on her skin. The GPS began to beep softly, indicating that they had arrived. She turned and glanced at Penn, taking a deep breath of her own.

"Only one way to save the planet... you ready?"

Penn tore himself away from the wall and joined her at the front window, looking up at the portal.

"Not really, but we're going anyway... Allon-sy, I suppose..."

Sunset nodded and flipped the hoverskirt switch a second time, propelling them upwards.

This portal wasn't like the one between CHS and Equestria. It felt gentler, like stepping out the door of a building and into the outdoors. If she hadn't been paying attention, she might not have even noticed that they had transitioned into another world.

Fortunately, she WAS paying attention, because outer space was not a sight she would have wanted to miss. It was as if the absolute clearest and most beautiful night sky to ever exist had been taken and layered on top of itself a dozen times over, then copied over to cover every inch of her vision. Far away, great clouds and nebulas light-years across billowed and rolled across the heavens, auroras of color and light that seemed to sing with wonder and majesty. Sunset felt like she was peering into the heart of the cosmos, ready at any moment for some deep wisdom to fill her mind. Rather than some all-knowing voice of the stars, however, she was gifted only the sight of the Dalek ships coming into view. It was only now that she could really get a feel for how colossal they were, towering in the distance and dwarfing their tiny little box. She swallowed loudly and began to press forward on the joystick, driving them onward and deeper into space.

"Wow..." Penn whispered from behind her. Sunset could only nod in agreement. Penn reached up and pressed his finger to his ear with the communicator. "Coulson? We're through..."

 _"Good job. Everything is going well on our end, the team's taken out their first scout and split into two teams. Everything is going according to our timetable. Press on."_ Coulson's voice declared in Sunset's ear. She tried not to flinch at the volume of it, and made a note to ask later about turning down the decibels.

There were blissfully few obstacles to avoid as they drew in closer and closer to the alien armada. Soon, they were less than a hundred meters from the closest of the dalek ships.

"Penn? What _exactly_ was our way in?" Sunset whispered. Almost on cue, a panel on the side of the ship opened. It looked to be about Dalek-sized, but Sunset could tell that she'd be able to get the container through with careful piloting.

"I guess that question answered itself."

Sunset pushed the joystick forward, bringing them right up to the opening. She could hear Penn sucking in his breath through his teeth.

_So much for a vote of confidence..._

She unwrapped her fingers from around the controls, giving them only the lightest brush with her fingertips. Meticulously, the container slid through the passage and into the room beyond. When she was certain they had cleared the entrance, Sunset reached over and flicked the switch for the hoverskirt, bringing the container down with a clang of metal-on-metal. The door slid shut behind them, followed by the sound of air rushing into the room outside. Behind her, Penn finally released the breath he had been holding, taking deep gulps of oxygen from the room around them.

"D-do you think we should open one of the oxygen containers they left us? I'm feeling kinda woozy..." he muttered, staggering to his feet.

Sunset smiled and folded her arms over her chest.

"I feel just fine. _Told you_ I was good at this!"

Penn nodded, bending over and grabbing one of the steel containers, anyway.

"There haven't been many episodes showing the inside of Dalek ships, but every one we HAVE seen has shown them to have a breathable atmosphere... Still, we should keep this ready, just in case."

Sunset nodded, walking to the other side of the container and hovering her hand above the sensor for the door. She exchange a nervous glance with Penn, who tightened his grip on the O2 tank and nodded. Sunset exhaled, emptying every drop of air from her lungs, and pressed the button. The doors slid open. Sunset's heart skipped a beat as she felt a difference in pressure between the two rooms pull a chunk of air out of their room, but by the time her ears had popped to accommodate they had already equalized. She glanced over at Penn, who seemed to be watching her with equal trepidation. Each of them was waiting for the other to take the first breath of alien air. Finally, she watched him let out a long sigh, then inhale deeply from the new air. His face scrunched up in displeasure, but he didn't panic immediately.

"Smells like tinfoil, but I think it's safe..."

Sunset took a deep breath. She didn't get the tinfoil scent that he claimed, but the air did smell... clean. She was standing on an alien spaceship, and there was no smell at all to the air. It was just... air.

"Why is there breathable air on a ship of alien war machines?" she whispered.

"Skaro had a breathable atmosphere, I guess it's tradition? Saves on energy for individual life support? I don't know..." Penn muttered. He reached into his pocket, unfolding a copy of the map Skye had gleaned from the data core.

Sunset did NOT like the individual she was entrusting with her life to shrugging off the question of how they could _breathe,_ but Penn stepped out of the box and towards a door leading out of the airlock they had landed in.

"Okay, this way to the repair shop..." he whispered, motioning for her to follow. Sunset took a deep breath and reached up to her ear.

"Agent Coulson? We made it on board."

_"Great! You're doing great, Sunset. Remember, no unnecessary risks!"_

Sunset nodded and stepped out of their container. This was no time to be afraid. She had a job to do, a planet to save!

_Now if only I could get that message across to my hands so they'd stop trembling..._

Penn stepped to the side of the door frame and waved his hand, activating the door and causing it to slide aside. He poked the tiniest sliver of his head through. After a moment, he nodded in affirmation.

"Coast is clear. Follow me..."

The two of them tread carefully down the hallway. Sunset tried her best to balance speed and silence, keeping her footsteps light and matching Penn's pace. Everything around them was bronze and black, dimly lit by blinking lights behind warped glass panes. The hallways went on and on for what felt like miles. Every second, her heart pounded with fear at the thought that a Dalek could come rolling out from behind one of the countless doors that they were passing and alert the entire ship to their presence. Just ahead of her, she could see Penn constantly mouthing out numbers for every door they passed, glancing back at the map every few seconds. At last, he drew up short and pressed himself against the wall beside one of the doors. Sunset followed suit, placing her back to the wall and trying to make herself as small as possible. Penn pressed his finger to his lips, then pointed to the door. Sunset nodded.

_As if I needed encouragement to keep quiet..._

Penn reached out and waved his hand in front of the door, causing it to slide open. Inch by inch, he eased his way out around the corner. With a sudden and frantic motion, he pulled himself back out of sight, chest heaving up and down as he repressed his urge to scream in surprise.

Sunset guessed that there had been a Dalek on the other side, and readied herself to run. To her surprise, however, the silence remained unbroken.

_Did they not see him?_

Penn appeared equally surprised. Sunset watched as he took a long, deep breath, then turned back to the door. Sunset grabbed at his shoulder, yanking him back before he could peer around the corner again. Penn turned and stared at her, eyes frantically searching for any other reason she could have panicked before settling on her face.

 _Are you CRAZY?_ She mouthed the words noiselessly.

Penn shook his head, then pointed to the doorway before holding one hand flat and tiptoeing his fingers across it.

 _We won't make it!_ Sunset shook her head. Penn held both hands up to either side of her head, blocking off the corners of her vision.

 _Tunnel vision..._ He mouthed, bringing his hands in closer until all that she could see was his face to demonstrate his point. It made sense. Only having a single eye surely left the Daleks with a terrible field of view, which explained why the head of the one they'd fought before had been able to swivel completely around.

Sunset shook her head, taking the map from his hands to look for another path. As much as she hated to admit it, the next passageway to the repair room was nearly half a mile farther down the hallway they were standing in. It would be a huge risk to try to travel that far undetected.

 _Are you sure?_ she mouthed.

Penn leaned back, taking another glance through the door. With a nod of certainty, he stepped away from Sunset and into the hallway, disappearing from sight. Sunset screwed her eyes shut, waiting for cries of "Intruder alert!" and "Exterminate!" But the silence that meant their safety only continued to endure. With no choice but to continue, Sunset stepped out of hiding and into the hallway.

Daleks lined the walls, crammed back to back and side by side. Each one of them had their plunger-like appendage connected to what looked like a computer terminal and were facing the walls, their eyestalks pointed straight ahead. Standing in the center of it all was Penn, inching his way through by standing sideways and slipping through the gap between their backs. Sunset's jaw dropped. She'd been in roomier spaces when the whole band had been crammed into the back of a minivan! One wrong move and there would only be Daleks to fall onto!

 _Guess I can't make one wrong move..._ Sunset thought to herself, swallowing her fear and taking her first step down the hallway. None of the Daleks noticed as she slipped her body between them, turning sideways to keep herself as narrow as possible. She silently prayed to whatever gods were left that the Daleks wouldn't hear her heart pounding away in her chest. At the end of the hallway, Penn had nearly cleared the last pair of Daleks. Sunset watched with anticipation as he extricated himself from the line, triumphantly holding a fist to the sky. Sunset smiled, elated as he proved that it was possible to make it through undetected. The moment's distraction, however, was enough to throw off her careful balance as one of her ankles began to buckle. Her whole body lurched to the left as she desperately swung her arms to keep her balance. Just as she regained control, she heard a soft blushing sound as her hair swung out and collided with the back of the Dalek behind her. Sunset's eyes widened and her head turned meticulously to the side, trying to glean any sign that the Dalek had noticed her presence.

The eyestalk began to turn. Sunset ducked, cramming her body as low to the floor as she could without losing her balance. The Dalek's head turned one hundred and eighty degrees and the eyestalk flicked up and down. Sunset held her breath. After several seconds, the Dalek's head rotated the rest of the way to swivel back to its work. Sunset waited another ten seconds, taking the opportunity to peer down at her parter. Penn had hidden behind the last Dalek in the line, which was still totally engrossed in... whatever it was these Daleks were doing. When she finally felt the moment had passed, Sunset continued down the line with twice the care she'd been taking before. It was slow, but relatively safer. Time continued crawling along at a pace as slow as her own, but Sunset finally reached the end of the line, where Penn was waiting with both hands clasped over his mouth. Sunset rolled her eyes and pointed to the door before stepping to the side to make sure she was out of sight of whatever was on the other side. Penn nodded and did the same thing before waving his hand. The door slid open, revealing another empty hallway. The two of them eagerly stepped through to safety, each letting go of a sigh of relief when the door slid shut.

 _ARE YOU OKAY?_ Penn mouthed the word with such enthusiasm, Sunset could practically hear it. She simply nodded, placing her hand on her chest to try and slow her racing heart. This new hallway only went one way, with no other entrances than they way they had come in and no exits other than the one they stood facing.

Sunset took a few deep breaths to steady herself before motioning for Penn to lead the way.

 _I still can't believe that worked..._ she thought to herself as they approached the next door.

The process repeated itself several times without complication. They would approach a door, Penn would make sure the coast was clear, and they would silently slink through to the next hallway. Finally, they came to a stop outside an archway wider and taller than any door they'd seen so far. Penn grinned and pointed gleefully to their map: they were standing right outside the repair station. Penn peeked around the corner, motioning for Sunset to wait. Once again, he retracted violently backwards. At the same moment, a Dalek came rolling out of the room, passing directly by them with its gaze fixed straight ahead. Sunset moved one of her hands up to her mouth to repress a scream as it passed by close enough for her to have reached out and touched it with her hand.

In this moment, everything came down to which way the Dalek would turn. Their lives were in the hands of fate.

That was when she felt Penn's hand grab hers and pull hard. In less than a second, they had both thrown themselves around the doorway's edge and inside the room, hiding on the other side of the same wall. Sunset watched in horror as the Dalek turned in the direction they had come from and drove away.

_If we'd stayed there, it would have seen us!_

A glance to her side revealed Penn had let go of her hand and stumbled to the corner of the room, where he had collapsed to the floor in a way that made it look as if his knees had given out beneath him. All color was gone from his face and his chest was heaving up and down as he hyperventilated from the shock of what had just happened. Sunset moved towards him, but he simply held up a hand for her to stop, pointed to his eye, then rotated his finger in a circle. Sunset understood the meaning: look around.

The room was definitely different from any other she had seen on the ship: she was tempted to classify it as "messy." Broken and half-disassembled Daleks were all over the room. The majority appeared inactive, though Sunset could see at least three with glowing light still behind their eyestalks, but all three of them were without their guns. The lights on top of one's head were blinking on and off at a rapid pace, as if it were talking but no sound was coming out. Another turned its head to stare at her, but otherwise didn't react. The plating at the front of this one was open, revealing only an empty cavity where the organic creature should have been. The third one was different from the rest: painted with a white body instead of the standard bronze and bright gold accents. Half of the spheres on the bottom half were missing, along with the gun and at least three of the armor panels. It looked as if something organic had taken a bite out of the top half, leaving it with only the left side of its upper body and a cracked eye.

 _In this case, I'd say silence is golden. Nothing shouting "EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" is music to my ears!_ she thought to herself as she made her way up to the open-fronted Dalek and began to examine it. She reached inside her pocket, retrieving the modified data core. She examined the item in her hand, then the insides of the Dalek. She frowned as her search came up fruitless. There was no sign of a data core to replace in this one. She turned back to Penn from across the room, shrugging her shoulders. With no lack of strain, Penn staggered to his feet and crossed the room. He glanced at the inside for a moment, then mimed the act of snapping his fingers. With a careful grasp of the eyestalk, he pulled the front of the head downwards. In an almost comical manner, the top of the Dalek popped off on the other side like a bottle cap. Sunset rushed around to the other side, peering in from above. In the center of the Dalek's head was a pillar with the data core sitting on top. Sunset grinned and reached inside, plucking the device from its place. With her other hand, he carefully placed their modified version where the old one had been. The machinery gave a satisfied click and a hum as a three-part case folded up around the data core and retracted into its proper place. Sunset stepped away as Penn released his grip, letting the top of the Dalek click back into place.

"REPAIRS COMPLETE! NEW DATA CORE AC-CEPT-ED!" the empty Dalek announced.

Sunset and Penn looked at once another. Penn's delighted grin was all the confirmation Sunset needed that their mission was completed. Penn pointed to his ear with the communicator, mouthing the words _Call it in?_ Sunset shook her head, drawing her fingers across her lips in the motion of a zipper. Penn nodded and pointed towards the open doorway, and Sunset nodded in agreement. It was time to go.

The two of them tiptoed across the room and back up against the wall. Penn peeked around the corner, smiled, and motioned for Sunset to follow. As they made their way back towards their spaceship-box, Sunset took extra care to monitor her own actions. This was the most dangerous part of any task: the home stretch. This was where people got sloppy. Together, the two of them made their way back through empty hallway after empty hallway until they were standing in a hallways she remembered too well. The next room was the one where they had nearly been caught. Penn paused before he opened the doorway, nodding to the closed door and mouthing _You ready?_

Sunset took a deep breath to steady her nerves. She had made a mistake last time. This time, she would be perfect. She steeled her gaze, looked directly into Penn's eyes, and nodded.

It was at that moment that the door on the other end of the hallway opened of its own accord, revealing a Dalek staring directly at them. Even the Dalek seemed surprised, backing off slightly. It took less than a second to recover, however, rolling towards them at what Sunset could only assume was its maximum ground speed.

"INTRUDERS DETECTED! EX-TER-MIN-ATE!"

What happened next was a blur for Sunset. It was as if time slowed to a crawl. She saw the blast of light leave the Dalek's gun, pointed directly at Penn. She felt panic well up in her, only to suddenly be replaced by an overwhelming peace, a moment of "zen" among the tides of hysteria. She felt something in her hand, her thumb pressed up against a switch. She knew where the blast was going. She knew where it would be. Where she could send it. Sunset Shimmer made her move and pushed the switch.

The blast ricocheted back down the hallway and straight down the Dalek's eyestalk, blowing it to smithereens. Sunset heard the hum of plasma and looked down into her hand.

It was the empty handle from the hardware store. She didn't even remember reaching down to grab it from her belt, but it was there in her hand. Now, however, the handle was no longer empty. A long blade of red light had extended from the hilt, humming with power as Sunset held it at a protective angle between the Dalek and Penn's body. Penn's eyes were wide with shock as he pressed himself to the wall.

"IS THAT A LIGHTSABER?" he screamed, shattering the silence that the two of them had kept since they'd boarded the ship. Before Sunset could even attempt to answer, the lights in the ship turned red and the voice of a Dalek rang across unseen speakers.

_"A-LERT! A-LERT! INTRUDERS DETECTED! MAXIMUM EXTERMINATION!"_

Sunset shook her head and waved her hand at the motion sensor, opening the door in front of them.

"No time! COME ON!" She grabbed Penn's hand and yanked him into the next room. There was no attempt to be sneaky this time, Sunset could see that the Daleks in this room were disconnecting themselves from their tasks. Instead they two of them barreled down the center of the line at top speed, trying to get through before the Daleks even knew they were there. Sunset felt a single beam fly past her shoulder as they rounded the corner and thanked the heavens that these Daleks appeared to have awful aim.

"Coulson! We got the data core planted, but we've been made! We're going to be coming in hot!" Penn shouted, using his free hand to activate his earpiece.

_"Get out of there, NOW! We just wiped out the last of the scouts, we'll all be waiting to cover your exit on this side!"_

Sunset took what comfort she could from the statement. Now what mattered most was to get out alive and back to Earth. Their team would have her back covered from here. Suddenly, she felt a jerk on her arm that nearly pulled it out of its socket.

"Sunset, here! It's THIS door!" Penn shouted, pulling her to the side and waving at the sensor frantically. The door opened, revealing the most welcoming ramshackle spacecraft Sunset had ever seen.

"EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" a voice came from ahead of them, and Sunset felt a powerful shove on her back. She stumbled forward and into the airlock, switching the plasma sword back off to avoid impaling herself. Her momentum carried her into the room and through the doors of the container, only barely managing to catch herself on the control panel.

The doors of the container slammed shut and the hoverskirt activated on its own, which appeared to activate the outside door automatically.

"What? NO, STOP!" Sunset began to frantically scramble for the controls with her left hand, only to find them unresponsive. Realization dawned on her as she slowly lifted her right hand, trembling and quaking with fear.

She had pressed the red button. The ship was auto-piloting itself back to Earth.

"NO! NO NO NO NO!" She screamed, repeatedly pulling on the joystick to try and turn herself around, only for it to snap off of the control panel in her hand. With tears in her eyes she reached up to her earpiece.

"I- I tripped! I tripped and hit the red button and nowIcan'tturnitaroundandPENNISSTILLINTHERE _HELPMEPLEASE!_ "

 _"You WHAT?"_ Coulson's voice came back. _"Sunset, you need to talk more slowly, I can't understand you!_

 _"The box took off without me, Coulson..."_ Penn's voice replied, breathless and on the verge of cracking. _"I- I managed to lock myself in another airlock, but it won't be long until they figure out where I'm hiding..."_

"Penn, I'm _SORRY!_ " Sunset tried to hold back a sob as the box piloted itself further and further from the ship. "I didn't mean to!"

 _"Don't worry about it... accidents happen, right? I pushed you too hard."_ Penn's voice held a terrifying resignation to it.

 _"Penn, you're the expert, TELL ME there's another way off that ship!"_ Coulson demanded.

 _"Coulson, Daleks ARE spaceships, they don't NEED escape pods. I could try to find a teleport or a transmat or something, but I don't know what they look like or how to use them, it'd be a shot in the dark! The only thing that gets off a Dalek ship alive is a-"_ Penn's words cut off suddenly, and Sunset felt fear for the worst race through her.

"Penn? PENN?"

_"I have an idea. You go on ahead, Sunny. I'll find my own way."_

"Penn? Penn, please don't go!" Sunset was overwhelmed by a wave of exhaustion as her head felt like it was spinning. She slumped against the wall of the container as darkness crawled into the corners of her vision. "Please... I don't want to be alone again..."

As the world outside faded to black, Sunset Shimmer was alone, floating through the not-technically-cold vacuum of space by herself because she'd ruined the life of another friend she didn't deserve. Coulson's voice was chattering away in her ear, but it quickly grew softer and softer as it proved itself unable to follow her into unconsciousness.

"Fitz! I need you to be ready to pilot that thing back! Ward! May! Grab... guns... I'll... operation... save..."

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Penn yanked the earpiece out of his ear and stuffed it into his pocket. His brain was running a mile a minute and he couldn't afford to trip up, mentally or physically.

 _Forty-five! Fourty-six! Fourty-SEVEN!_ he counted off the doors and leaped into the hallway, pushing and shoving his way through the crowded Daleks in the hall. He felt dull pains all over his shoulders and limbs as his speed sent him bouncing off of metal body after metal body, but no searing hot pain of a laser blast. He kept going, sliding his way under the door to avoid waiting for it to open entirely.

 _Help is coming, why risk all of this? Find a place to hide and stay there!_ the voice of Reason ordered.

 _SHIELD is good, but they're not "Dalek Mothership Rescue" good. Besides, what if one of them is killed? They're in the first half of the first season at BEST, what happens to the rest and the other four seasons? Paradox! I HAVE to get back on my own!_ Penn replied to himself as he blew past the Dalek Sunset had killed with the random lightsaber. He would have to think about THAT set of questions later.

 _Twelve doors down right, down two halls, and back thirty-two more doors, followed by four more halls and sixteen more doors! If you stop sprinting and take it slow, you CAN sneak your way there! Take your time!_ Reason commanded.

 _They probably have some kind of scanning technology they can use to find me, slowing down means death! Just have an awful lot of running to do!_ Penn retorted as he leaned into his next turn and began counting off doors as fast as he could. _Thanks for remembering the way!_

At the mention of the title, he could hear the opening guitar strums of Chameleon Circuit's song, "An Awful Lot of Running." He reached up and pounded his palm against his temple to kick the mental jukebox.

 _No time for songs, unless they're fast! Fast- gotta go faster!_ he pushed his legs harder and faster, trying to ignore the Sonic X theme that had begun playing in the back of his head. It was serviceable.

 _You have no idea how to do what you're planning on doing! This is just as much a shot in the dark as trying to find a teleport!_ Reason shouted.

_Well, I KNOW where to find this one! Now do me a favor and pull up our memories of "The Witch's Familiar!" Season 9-_

_SERIES Nine-_ Reason corrected.

_SERIES 9, episode two!_

Penn's lungs were beginning to burn and he could taste phlegm rising up from the back of his throat.

_You are NOT an endurance runner. You should save your strength for when you're being shot at-_

"EX-TERMINATE!" a blue-and-silver Dalek shouted as it slid out from a door in front of them. Penn dove to the side, barely avoiding being shot and driving his already-sore shoulder into the wall as he rebounded off and tried to regain his former pace. He could feel a familiar tightness in his chest binding his breathing.

 _You go on a quest to find the Rainbooms across time and space and don't think to put your inhaler in your pocket?_ Reason chided.

 _You know, you are NOT being helpful right now!_ Penn thought as he staggered his way back into the repair room. He reached down into his pocket, retrieving a small multi-tool. It was no sonic screwdriver, but it serve his purposes just fine. _So do something nice, and tell me which wire I need to cut!_

He closed his eyes, trying to recall the episode. He could see bits and pieces as he sorted through the unimportant details, finally reaching the scene he was looking for. He could SEE it, but he couldn't be sure where it was or which one.

_You can't do this, it won't work! The odds of cutting the right wire are-_

_If a disarmed crazy time lady with a pointed stick can do it, so can I!_ Penn cut off Reason's whining and reached up into the empty Dalek, yanking out a wire that matched his memory. _So shut up and pray, already!_

 _All of this wouldn't be necessary if your cards had worked... You're not worthy. You're weak. You're not doing it right. You screwed up. It's your own fault you're stuck here and going to die._ Reason gave way to Depression, and Penn shoved them both to the back of his mind to be tormented by the Sonic X theme on repeat. He'd gotten what he needed. Now all he needed was faith. He snipped the wire in two with the pocket tool and shoved it back into his pants before seating himself amid all of the assorted machinery and electronics of the Dalek.

"My cards might not be real, but let's see if I can't pull off a little banned spell, anyway..." he muttered, pressing the tips of the wires against his temples. Shooting, stabbing pain came from both sides of his head, leaving him in a blur. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a blurry bronze shape coming into view.

"EX-"

_Run away!_

"TER-"

_It didn't work!_

"MIN-"

_You can't die! I need you, too!_

"ATE!"

In that moment, caught between a chance at survival and the certainty of death, another voice started talking: a memory of only a few minutes ago.

_"Please... I don't want to be alone again..."_

Every sense sharpened as fear was overwhelmed by outrage. His friend thought that he had left her alone in the universe. That he had abandoned her. That... was _unacceptable._

Penn's gun fired first, obliterating the other Dalek. The armored plating slid into its proper place and his view of the outside world was reduced to a blue-tinted display of a fish-eye lens.

"Well, whaddya know? I activated the spell card 'Change of Heart!'"

 _You are such a nerd._ Reason chided.

Penn took it as a compliment.

And was the Sonic X theme SERIOUSLY STILL STUCK IN HIS HEAD AFTER SOMETHING SO COOL JUST HAPPENED?

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Sunset? Sunset, wake up!"

Sunset cracked her eyes open, finding herself staring into the face of Agent Coulson, who gave her a relieved smile.

"Thank goodness you're awake. Welcome home, Agent."

Sunset glanced around, trying to understand where she was. She was still in the container, but the doors were wide open, revealing the dead grass of West Texas. Coulson was knelt on the ground beside her, one hand on her shoulder to keep her in a sitting position in the corner.

"Simmons! Get over here and make sure she's okay!"

Almost instantly Jemma came through the doors, kneeling beside Coulson and shining a light into her eyes. Sunset flinched away from the bright spot, but it was quickly switched off and replaced by a hand on her forehead.

"Proper light response from the pupils, no sign of a fever... Sunset, do you think you can walk?"

Sunset gave her legs an experimental kick. They seemed responsive enough.

"Y-yeah..."

"Okay, good! That's good!" Coulson encouraged as he and Jemma each put a hand under one of her shoulders and lifted her to her feet, draping her arms across two sets of shoulders. Seconds later she was back outside in the fresh air and blistering sunshine. As her blood began to flow a little faster to her brain, Sunset realized what had made her pass out, to begin with.

"PENN! Where's Penn? Did you get him? Is he safe?"

Simmons frowned and glanced up at Coulson. Coulson didn't look at Sunset, keeping his eyes locked straight ahead.

"That's our next mission. Fitz is already working on repairing the controls. We have weapons that can kill these things, we can send Ward and May in for an armed extraction." Sunset felt an attempt at a reassuring pat on the back that wasn't very reassuring.

"We'll find him, I promise."

Sunset shook herself free of their shoulders and reached to her belt, feeling the empty hilt back in its proper place. She raised her hand to her forehead in a loyal salute.

"Then I'm ready for the next mission, sir."

Coulson looked confused while Simmons's jaw dropped in shock.

"Y-you're joking, right?" Simmons asked. "You're not in any condition to go back out there!"

"The whole reason I'm IN good condition is because Penn pushed me out of the way of an attack! I never got hurt! I'm _ready_ to go back in and save him!" She reached down to her belt, grabbing the empty hilt and flicking the switch. Once again,the blade of red light jumped out, prepared to slice through anything she turned it on. Coulson's eyes grew wide.

"Is that a REAL-LIFE LIGHTSABER?"

"Incoming!" Agent May's voice shouted. High above them, a Dalek appeared from the portal, only to be blasted to pieces by a laser blast from the ground.

Agent Ward approached from the side, holding one of the Dalek guns in his hand. "We've been blowing these things out of the sky ever since we got back, I think they've been trying to follow you- is that a lightsaber?" he asked, pointing at the sword.

Sunset was starting to get the idea that this thing was called a "lightsaber."

"Another one!" May shouted, opening fire. This time, however, the blast wasn't enough to destroy the Dalek, knocking it off of its path and sending it spiraling to the ground in a trail of smoke.

"I think that one survived..." Simmons whispered.

"Hold your fire! Maybe if we take this one alive, we can trade it for our man! Or at least get some information out of it!" Coulson called. Everyone rushed to the crater where the Dalek had landed. It was still smoking from a large hole near the top of the dome, exposed wires sparking and arcing inside. Ward and May both kept their guns trained on it, ready to fire at a moment's notice as Simmons, Sunset and Coulson caught up.

Staring down at the monster, Sunset couldn't contain her disgust. Penn had been right: these things were the antithesis of everything she and her friends stood for, and now they had taken her _new_ friend away from her.

"My name is Agent Philip Coulson, I represent the Strategic Homeland Intervention Logistics Division," Coulson announced with practiced ease. "You are being held as a member of an invading alien force and we ARE authorized to use lethal force! State your name, species, and intent!"

"I AM A DALEK! I AM A DALEK! I HAVE COME... TO SEE... THE END OF DAY!" The Dalek seemed to be struggling to say anything outside of its normal one-word vocabulary of "Exterminate."

"End of days? Are Daleks religious? Could there be a theological connotation?" Simmons pondered, hiding slightly behind Coulson.

"It's a machine and it's broken. It's not going to make sense." Agent Ward took aim. "I say we eliminate the threat and get ready to send in the extraction team as planned."

Coulson took a deep breath, then nodded.

"Do it. We can't waste time."

Sunset couldn't say she wasn't happy with the decision.

"END OF THE DAY! MERCY! END OF THE DAY! MERCY! MERCY!" the Dalek began to repeat over and over.

_End of the day? What's so special about he end of the-_

Deep, deep in Sunset's mind, something clicked.

"WAIT!" She jumped up and shove the barrel of Ward's gun up, firing it harmlessly into the air. She positioned herself in front of the Dalek, blocking any more potential shots with her own body.

"Sunset, what are you DOING?" Coulson shouted. "Get away from that thing, it'll kill you!"

"I figured it out! 'End of the day!' What happens at the end of the day?" she urged, pleading with them to understand.

The other agents looked at one another in confusion, but Simmons's eyes went wide.

"The end of the day is SUNSET! Oh my word, it's calling your _name!_ "

Behind her, Sunset heard the hiss of pressurized air escaping. Looking down, she watched the armor plating of the Dalek expand and part, revealing a familiar face sitting inside. He was thoroughly covered in bruises and had trickles of blood running from the places two wires connected to his head, but it was unmistakably Penn.

"Itsh me..." he mumbled, his eyes rolling back into his head as he passed out.

"I AM A DALEK!" shouted the Dalek.

"PENN!" Sunset leaped down into the crater, examining him from head to toe. He was in sorry shape, completely unconscious, but still breathing. "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."

"Simmons, go wake up Fitz. I get the feeling it's going to take both of you to get him out of there..." Coulson whispered.

"Right away, sir!"

"Well, I'll admit it... I'm impressed." Ward muttered, lowering the gun for good. "Wiring himself inside one of those things to get home? Just when you think you've seen everything on this job..."

Sunset wasn't listening. She was just happy to have one of her friends back.


End file.
